Roads Unraveled
by TakeAChance13
Summary: Dean has a daughter. A 17 year old daughter named Hayla that he never even knew about. When she comes into his life his entire world is shifted upside down. He now faces the responsibilities of fatherhood while trying to keep his daughter from ending up like him and dealing with her demon bodyguard, Ian. Dean/OC (family) Possible OC/OC Destiel in later chapters. Takes place in S7.
1. Authors Note

Hello ladies and gentlemen. So this is my VERY FIRST story ever. I have a story line line for this all planned out but I tend to change my mind so we'll see how it goes. I plan to stick mostly to the supernatural storyline with a sprinkle of my own creation. But I would really like some feed back as I write this. Do you like it? Do you hate it. I'm always up for criticism and suggestions on how you like it and where you would like the story to go. I've had this Idea in my head for a while now and I just have to get it out there.

I do tend to get some inspiration from other tv shows, movies, and writings so if you see something you might recognize I'm not meaning to rip it off I swear it just my way of admiring them for providing this story with little twists and me with inspiration for a character or a scene.

Any way I hope you like it. I'll take all the feedback I can get. Follow my story on Tumblr:  blog/roads-unraveld

No copyright intended. I DO NOT OWN SUPERNATURAL OR ANY OF ITS CHARATERS! Just Hayla and Killian.


	2. Slash Fiction

The sun was just setting over Sioux Falls one late afternoon. Jodi Mills was back to working at the Sioux Falls Police Department and as usual she was the last one in the now quiet office. After her recovery she wasted no time throwing herself back into her work. Someone had to protect her town from the Leviathan that could now be roaming anywhere. She had hung up her uniform and badge but still had her gun strapped to her side. She was just about to head home for the night when a small figure with a Guns N' Roses tank top and silky blonde curls walked walked in with a backpack over one shoulder and a lost look on her face. The girl looked so innocent and couldn't be more than eighteen. Jodi smiled at the young girl and walked over to her. "Hi," she said catching her attention. "Can I help you?"

The girl opened her mouth hesitantly to say something as if not sure she should say anything. "Yes. Maybe you can," she said. "I'm looking for someone."

"Well I'm sure I can help with that. Who?"

"His name is Bobby Singer. I had his address but when I went by it looked like it had been burnt down."

"Yeah it did, not that long ago." Jodi looked the girl over examining her. She didn't know this girl. She could be another one of those big mouthed monsters for all she knew. The girls face took on a defeated look. She looked tired and hungry and just about done with whatever mission she seemed to be on. Jodi could relate to her on that. "I'm sorry who are you?"

"Hayla Scott. My mom was a friend of Bobby's."

Jodi nodded. The girl seemed innocent enough. She didn't seem like a monster. She just seemed like a lost girl. She smiled at her. "Well lucky for you I know where he's held up now." She saw the gleam of hope reanimate in the girls eyes and gave her a smile. "I was on my way there anyway. I'll give you a ride."

Jodi let the girl put her backpack and duffel in the back of her cruiser and they both hopped in. They both sat silently as Hayla looked out the window watching the trees pass in a blur as she fingered the bronze locket around her neck. "So," Jodi breaks the silence. "You said your mom sent you here?"

Hayla looked over at her. Jodi seemed really nice, and she could see why she was sheriff. If the rest of Sioux Falls had her same warm smile Hayla might even be compelled to stay for more than her usual three or four days."Yeah. Said if I ever needed anything, Bobby would be the one to go to."

"What about your dad?"

"I never met him. As far as I know, he doesn't even know I exist." Jodi nodded.

"So where are you coming from?"

"Leola," she said.

"Is it nice there?"

"From what I could tell yeah. I didn't stay long."

"So you don't live there?"

The girl slightly chuckled to herself and looked at her hands in her lap. "I don't live much of anywhere"

"What do you mean?" she asked concerned.

"I've lived out of a suitcase practically my whole life. I'm not one to stay in one place for very long."

"Yeah. I know some people like that," Jodi said under her breath. Hayla looked at her questioningly but Jodi kept staring straight ahead. They rode in silence the rest of the car ride. "Here we are." they pulled up a dirt driveway and parked in front of a rickety abandoned looking house.

Hayla stepped out of the cruiser. Her boots crunched against gravel and she felt a chill through her leather jacket. "Are you sure?" she asked with a grain of salt.

Jodi laughed pulling a grocery bag and a six pack from the back seat. "Come on." She ushered the girl along. Hayla grabbed her bags and walked up the pathway. The porch creaked under their weight and she was sure if there was a few more pounds between them the would fall through. Jodi rapped her knuckles against the worn wood of the door. A few seconds later the door swung open revealing a man with a care worn face covered by a beard and wearing an old ball cap. Jodi smiled at him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked in a low raspy voice.

Her smile fell "You're all charm Bobby," she said sarcastically.

"So my therapist keeps telling me," he jokes back and Hayla give a small laugh at the man. "How did you find me?"

"I'm a cop. Remember" she says frankly.

"Who's she?" He nods towards Hayla.

"A friend. Hayla," Jodi says addressing the girl, "this is Bobby Singer. Bobby, this is Hayla Scott." Hayla gives him a small nod the corners of her mouth twitching into a half smile. Bobby returns a nod. Jodi looks back at Bobby with a smile. "Now are you gonna keep asking questions or are you gonna invite us in?" She held up the grocery bag and six pack.

"You may not want me to. I have a," he pauses and looks at Hayla, "...situation downstairs."

"So we won't go downstairs," Hayla says easily and pushes her way through the door. Jodi shrugs and they follow behind her. They walk into what Hayla thinks is supposed to be a kitchen but smells more like a bar complete with a few empty bottles of whiskey. She sat her bags down and looked around the small house that was made up of about three rooms. Her eyes fell on the kitchen table and she picks up a newspaper. The front page is titled 'Killer Dou Still At Large'.

"So, Hayla. What brings you here?" Bobby asked sitting down at the table.

"Well," she started and sat down across from the old man, "I am just really hoping that you are the Bobby Singer that I am looking for because if not, I'm screwed." Bobby crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a confused look. "My mom. She said that you could help me. That if I came to you everything would work itself out. Her name was Jane Scott."

"Jane Scott?" he questions. "Jane Scott? Jane Scott? Oh yeah," he recalls and Hayla sighs in relief. "She used to work with me at the shop when she was your age. Nice girl. She could fix an engine like nobody's business." Hayla smiles. "Why did she send you here? Where is she?"

She looks at her feet and kicks some dirt around with the toe of her boot. "She's dead." Bobby looked at Jodi who shrugged her shoulders saying this is the first she'd heard about it. "She died when I was four." Bobby looked at the girl sympathetically.

"I'm sorry." Hayla looked back at him and gave a sad half smile.

"No offence, but if your mother has been dead all this time how did she send you here?"

"A letter. Every kid in the foster system has a file that follows them from home to home. In mine was a letter from my mother saying that if I was ever in trouble or I just need someone, to find you."

"And what do you need me for?" he asked questioningly. Hayla sighed and picked up the paper turning it towards him. Then she pulled out a paper from her bag and pushed them both to him.

His face dropped and his eyes widened as he looked back up at her. "No." He shook his head in disbelief. Jodi looked over his shoulder the same look of disbelief on her face.

Bobby glanced down at the paper once again but as hard as he tried the letters didn't change. It was her birth certificate. On it was written Hayla Scott. Born April 2nd, 1994 to Jane Scott and… Dean Winchester.

"As soon as I found out who my father was I searched everywhere for him, but everywhere I went was a dead end. Some said he was spotted a week ago, some said he was dead… multiple times. Then I saw the news, and imagine my surprise when a familiar face popped up." Bobby ran his hands over his face and sighed heavily. "So I scrounged up some money, packed my bags, and got on a bus looking for every Bobby Singer in South Dakota." He looked at Jodi not sure what to say and she laid a hand on his shoulder. "I just want to know who he is...really." There was a long silence as Bobby continued to read the certificate.

"I can cook...ish," Jodi said from behind him. "Why don't I make us all something. You must be hungry?" she asked Hayla and she nodded. She smiled at the girl and handed a beer to Bobby. He looked up at her and popped open his can of beer before taking a long chug of it and heading down stairs.

* * *

Bobby's phone rang and he excused himself outside to talk to the boys. They had found a lead on the Leviathan and wanted to know if Bobby had found a way to kill them yet. "Chopping of their heads won't kill em' but it'll slow em' down pretty good," he informed the boys. "Until they juice back up again."

"Well that's something I guess," Sam scoffed. "assuming we can even get close enough.

"Believe me I don't want you walking' up to the things either. I'm still lookin' for somethin' you can shoot at em'."

"Good times," Dean says sarcastically. "Thanks Bobby."

"Bobby," Hayla said popping her head outside. "Food's done," she informs him and he gives her a nod before she goes inside.

"You got a chick over there?" Dean asks shocked.

"What? No," he says suspiciously.

"Are you even working Richard Gere?"

"No. It's not like that you idjot. Listen we've kinda got a situation over here. You might wanna get back as soon as you boys can."

"What kind of situation?"

"We'll talk about it when you get back. Just gank the sons of bitches and get over here." He hung up the phone and walked back inside.

* * *

Hayla had spent the night on the bunk beds in the back room and Jodi stayed with her. The next morning Jodi had gone out to get them all something to eat while Bobby continued with who knows what in the basement. Hayla spent this time looking at everything around the house. Hayla assumed Bobby spent most weekends out in the woods hunting deer or going to a shooting range to blow off steam. Lord knows he had enough firearms and ammunition for the freakin apocalypse. Half of all of the cabinets and fridge were filled with alcohol and most of the others were filled with tools. She looked down at her watch and figured she had a while till Jodi got back out to the nowheresville that Bobby lived in. She grabbed one of the toolboxes and her brown leather backpack and headed outside.

Parked in front of the house was a rusty 1971 Chevelle that Hayla had been eyeing for hours. She opened the front and hopped in the drivers seat. She put the keys in the ignition only to have the car sputter and screech before giving out like she thought it would. She popped the hood and walked around to the front with her tool box. She propped the hood open and rolling up the sleeves of her grey plaid shirt and pulling her hair back into a messy ponytail. The she took a look inside checking the usual suspects before grabbing a wrench and getting to work. About twenty minutes later Jodi pulled up to the house in her cruiser. She hopped out with a few fast food bags in hand and walked over to where Hayla was working on the car.

"Hey," Jodi greeted.

Hayla hadn't noticed her arrival, too wrapped up in her own work. "Hey." Hayla smiled back. Jodi pulled an egg sandwich from one of the bags. "Thanks," Hayla says unwrapping it and taking a bite. Jodi slipped behind the wheel and took another sandwich from the bag and ate while she watched Hayla work. She looked into the passenger seat and saw a small box poking out of the front pocket of her backpack. She took it out and found a small cassette labeled AC DC. When she popped it into the player Hayla smiled and nodded her head along to the beat.

* * *

Bobby's phone rang as the Bobby cloned leviathan taunted him. "Tell the kids I said hi," he yelled as the real Bobby walked up the steps again.

"Hello?"

"Bobby we got eyes on them," Deans voice rang through the phone. Bobby looked around the small house and didn't see any sign of Jodi or Hayla.

"What?" He questioned Dean. Then he heard music blaring outside.

"It's like looking in a funhouse mirror," he said in a disgusted tone.

"Yeah I know the feeling." He stepped on the porch and from a distance he saw Hayla and Jodi by his car listening to AC DC while Hayla worked under the hood. He gave her a sideways glance. Looking at her like this, Bobby thought to himself that maybe Dean had more than one clone. "In more ways than one," he grumbled under his breath.

"Okay well tell me you got something or we're gonna have to get in close."

"Look just hang back for now."

"It's too late look we gotta-" Dean cut off and Bobby could hear cruiser sirens through the phone. "Hold on."

"Hands in the air!" He heard another voice yell.

"Woah, woah, woah. Big misunderstanding," Dean tried to talk the officer down. "Look the guys you want they're right over there. Just turn around."

"Shut up. Put the phone on the ground. Put your hands in the air!" Bobby listened as the scene played out.

"Dean?" he questioned. "Dean?" He knew Dean had dropped the phone. "Damn it." Bobby hung up the phone and looked back over at the girl who was currently under his hood. Dean and Sam would find a way out of this he knew that. It was their job. Right now his job was to make sure that girl was safe in their absence. He shoved the phone back into his pocket and walk across the gravel to his car. Hayla gave him a nod as she wiped the grease from her hands with an old rag. "What do you think you're doing?" he questioned her.

She smirked at him "Well." She walked over to the drivers side. "If I'm correct." She reached her arm through the window and turned the key in the ignition. The car sputterws for a few seconds and then roared to life into a gentle purr. "Fixing it," she said matter-of-factly.

Bobby scrunched his eyebrows together and Jodi gave her an approving look. "Where did you learn to do that?" he asked.

"Long story short. I've bounced around from place to place the last couple years. Last year some guy named Jareth took me in. He ran a chop shop. Guys were bringing cars in and out for the couple months I was there. They would strip them, put them back together. I paid attention." Hayla leaned against the door and gave Bobby a smirk as he looked at his newly tuned engine. He closed the hood with a slam and gave an approving nod.

"Good job," he said almost impressed before walking back into the house. Hayla gave Jodi a smile.

* * *

Jodi was busying herself around the house trying to put everything in some sort of order.

"Hey, Hayla?" Jodi called from the kitchen.

"Yeah?" Hayla turned a book over in her hands. It was about the folklore of fairies and although it was very interesting she was starting to think that Bobby may be some kind of nut. I mean he did just spend the whole night in a basement doing God knows what.

"You wanna help me?" Hayla looked over and Jodi held up a bucket and some wash rags. "Lord knows that this place could use some sorting. And if you're gonna stay here for the time being, I'll leave here a lot less worried if I know it's somewhat clean." She grimaced at the dirt covering the floors and Hayla laughed. She sat the book on top of a pile on the floor and walked over taking a rag.

Jodi dropped the bucket on the floor and dipped her rag in it before dragging it across the floor. "Jodi?" Hayla said washing one of the floor boards.

"Hmm?"

"Can ask you a question?"

She furrowed her eyebrows together and shook her head. "Anything sweetheart."

Hayla gave a half smile. "Dean," she paused wonder how to ask her question, "he's a good guy...right?"

Jodi sighed and smiled. "He's one of the best men I have ever known. He's a little ruff around the edges, a little grumpy at times, but when push comes to shove you couldn't ask for anyone better to have your back." Hayla smiled at this. "He saved my life." Hayla looked down at the floor almost looking disappointed. If Dean had been the same way he was portrayed on television and in the news she would have understood that better. Now she was just confused. "Hey," Jodi caught her attention. "This whole thing is just a misunderstanding. It will blow over." Hayla nodded. They went back to cleaning the floor in silence until Bobby came running up the stairs panicked looking. Jodi stood up and looked his way. "Oh sorry. A little snafu here," she said referring to the mess. Bobby rushed forward and taking Jodi's face in his hands and pulling her in for a kiss. Hayla raised her eyebrows in shock and looked away. "Okay wasn't expecting that reaction," Jodi said a little caught by surprise.

"What the hell was in that bucket?" Bobby asked frantically.

"Cleaning soap. Why?" Jodi pointed to the bottle and Bobby rushed over grabbed the bottle and rushed back down stairs. The girls watched him and then looked at each other. Jodi gave her a questioning look and Hayla just laughed and went back to cleaning.

* * *

Hayla was dusting off the bannister over the fireplace when Jodi came to say good bye. "Hey," she said catching the girls attention. " I think I'm gonna head out," She tucked a small box under her arm. "You'll be in good hands with Bobby. He'll take care of you, but Hayla promise me one thing?"

"Anything." Hayla smiled.

"Take care of him?" Hayla laughed and nodded. "I'm real sorry about your mom," she said sincerely and the smile fell from Hayla's face. "But I think you meeting Dean will be the start of something great. For both of you." Jodi gave he a wave a headed towards the door

"Jodi," she turned back around. "Thank you."

"For what?" she asked confused.

"What you've done for me this past weekend has been the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time. So thank you." Jodi smiled and walked over to the her to giver her a hug.

She pulled away and caressed Hayla's cheek. "Call me if you need anything." Hayla nodded and finally Jodi left.

* * *

After Jodi had left Bobby had to do some 'yard work' in his non-existant yard, but Bobby seemed like the kind of guy who had some pretty dark secrets so Hayla didn't ask questions she didn't want to know the answers to. A couple hour later it was getting close to dark and she was on the couch reading a book about ghosts from Bobbys very interesting library. Then they saw headlights shine through the curtains. Bobby went straight to the door and Hayla remained on the couch as she watched the man enter the house.

"Where's Sam?" Bobby asked.

"We had a bit of a falling out," the other man said. "I'll tell you about it later. What's this situation I had to rush all the way here for?" Hayla sat down the book and got up from the couch. Bobby nodded over the mans shoulder towards Hayla. He turned around and Hayla shifted as her green eyes locked with his.

"Dean," she gasps. Dean looked back at Bobby who was trying to look anywhere but at the two of them. He returned his attention back to Hayla, a confused expression crossing his face.

"I'm sorry do have we met before?" he asked gruffly.

Hayla shook her head and stepped towards him. "No." He looked even more confused now. "You don't know me, but," she paused not really sure how to form the words any more. She took a deep breath and smiled. "My name is Hayla...I'm your daughter."


	3. The Greatest Summer

Dean hadn't said anything. He just walked away picking up a whiskey bottle and throwing himself of the top bunk in the next room. The next few days were spent in uncomfortable silence while everyone tiptoed around each other. When Dean wasn't leaving voicemails to Sam,who even Hayla could tell didn't want to talk to him, he was on his laptop doing who knows what. Hayla knew he was trying to avoid the issue at hand. She was fine with that. She knew when she showed up that she wasn't just going to reveal who she was and Dean was going to scoop her up in his arms for a hug and everything would be all sunshine and rainbows. She wasn't delusional. Dean need his time to adjust. She just wished that they could have a conversation around here that was above a whisper.

"I should get a blood test or something right?" Dean asked Bobby sitting at the kitchen table in hushed tones.

"I mean if you think it's the best idea, yeah go ahead." They both looked over at the sleeping girl on the couch with her mouth slightly open and hair falling in her face. Bobby slightly smiled at her. "Even though it's so obvious that she's yours."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you haven't spent the last few days actually with the girl. She is you. Through and through." Dean looked over at the couch and had to admit that he had noticed similarities between the two of them over the past few days.

"What am I going to do Bobby?"

"You're asking me what you should do?" Bobby got up from the table in a huff. "That girl over there didn't get asked to be brought into this world. You brought her into this world. It might have been stupid and you might have been young but it wasn't a mistake. Hell I'd say that girl finding you was a damn miracle! So you want to know what you should do? You need to man up and start taking responsibility for you daughter." Bobby turned away and stormed out of the house leaving Dean shocked at his outburst. The front door slammed closed shaking the house slightly and Hayla stirred in her sleep. Dean opened his laptop again and started looking for another case. He need to get out of here. Bobby was right about everything he'll admit that. But he just need to clear his head. He was in no condition lately to even know where to start with the mess he found himself in currently. So a no leviathan, no end of the world, good old fashioned case might do him some good.

Hayla woke up after hearing the front door slam. She figured it must have been Bobby because Dean was sitting in the kitchen, like he always was, on his laptop. She sighed and threw the blanket off of her. Then hopped off the couch and walked towards the kitchen to grab a drink. She filled a glass with water and leaned against the wall behind Dean who didn't even acknowledge she'd moved to begin with. Hayla was sick of this. She sighed heavily.

"Alright I give up." She saw Dean jump a little as she began. "I can't tell if you're avoiding me anymore or if you're genuinely interested in," she looked over Dean's shoulder to see what was on the screen, "some dean old guy in Tupelo, Oklahoma." Dean continued to scroll through the article he was reading. "If you are that sort of worries me because I'm pretty sure physiological imbalances are hereditary," Hayla joked. The corners of Dean's mouth turned up and he gave a small laugh. "So he laughs?" Hayla said spitefully.

The smile falls from his face and he looks back at her. He opens his mouth to say something but closes it not sure what to say. He looks at the chair that Bobby had been in moments ago and pulls it towards him. Looking at her again he gestures his hand out offering her the seat. She looks at him for a moment before hesitantly taking it. Dean stared at her for moment not saying anything. "What?" she snaps.

"I'm sorry," he says genuinely. "I'm sorry for the way I've been acting for the past few days."

"You mean avoiding me like the plague?"

"Yeah that." He bites the inside of his cheek guiltily. "I'm sorry but you show up here with that I just, I needed time to process." Hayla shook her head in disbelief turning away from him. "Let's start over." She looks back to him and thinks about it.

She nods agreeing and small smirk plays on Dean's face. She reached out her hand "Hi I'm Hayla. Your daughter."

Dean smiled and reached out taking her hand. "I'm Dean. Your father." Hayla smiled. "You are sure I'm your father right?" She gave him a glare."Of course you are. Why else would you show up here?" He picks up his beer and takes a drink thinking. "Why did you show up here?"

She shrugged. "I guess I wanted to get to know you. Find out where I come from. Same thing every little orphan Annie wants to inevitably know."

"That I can do," He pointed at her and took another swig from his beer and leaning back in his seat. "What do you want to know?"

"Well lets start with the basics," she said leaning back in her chair mimicking his movements. "What do you do for a living?"

Dean gave a slight choking sound on his drink. He wiped his mouth and Hayula gave him a weired look. "I'm a…" he thought for a moment. He decided to go with the only other job he knew anything about. "mechanic."

"Have any family?"

"None other than Sam and Bobby. And now you of course." He eyebrows furrowed together as he looked over the girl. "Speaking of you. Is there anything I should know about you?"

"What do you want to know?" She smiled glad that he's finally taking an interest.

He pouted his lips thinking it over. "What your favorite color?" he joked and she gave him a laugh.

"Seriously," She laughed and gave him a shove on the shoulder. He laughed back. Just then Bobby walked in the house paper bag in hand. "Hey Bobby," Hayla says with a grin on her face. He looks between the smiling pair and raises his eyes at Dean who just shrugs.

"Uh, I got some food." He held up the bag. "Burritos."

* * *

The sun had long set when Dean had finally caught a case. Turned out the guy he had found dead in Oklahoma was the most recent in a long line of kills and the whole thing reeked malevolent spirit to him. He was in the middle of packing up the latest clunker he had stolen when Hayla walked over to him. Her black boots crunching against the gravel. When she reached him she leaned against the beat up car he was hauling things in. She had expected Dean to drive something nicer. Something more masculine and badass. He did claim to be a mechanic.

She looked of towards the house her back slightly turned to him but she could feel his eyes glance at the side of her face before he continued his work. "Where are you going?" she asked warily.

"I got to make a trip." He shoved more things into his duffle and threw it in the trunk.

She pushed off the car and turned towards him with a look of disbelief. "Are you serious?"

He sighed and closed the trunk to look at her. "Yes. I got a call for a job."

"Just like that?"

He nodded. "Just like that." He turned away and walked around the car towards the driver side. Hayla threw her arms in the air and followed him around.

"And what do you expect me to do just sit here and wait for you to get back?"

"Yes," he said more as a demand than a statement. "Bobby will take care of you while I'm gone." He opened the car door about to get in. Hayla shook her head at him and gave a glare.

"Unbelieveable," she said just above a whisper.

"What?" he snaps back at her.

"You really had me going there for a minute with that whole 'let's start over' bit, and I thought 'hey maybe he's coming around'. But no even after the past few days you're still gonna run!" She tuned back towards the house. "Unbelieveable!" she yelled as she huffed away. Her red plaid dress swaying behind her.

"Hey!" Dean yelled in frustration. "Hayla!" he called after her, but it was too late. The door to the house had slammed shut so hard it shook the foundation. Dean groaned and banged his head against the roof of the car.

Hayla was furious. He was such a coward. He gave her all these crap lies and witty humor but he had no intention of sticking around long enough to get to know her. That was fine. Hayla grabbed her black leather jacket off the back of the couch and threw it on. If he didn't want to stay she was going to leave. She grabbed her duffle and her backpack and headed out the door.

Dean took a deep breath and gave another look at the house. Should he stay? No he'd already found the case he couldn't walk away now. Even if he did stay Hayla would be pissed at him still. He climbed into the car and closed the door behind him. Just as he started the car the passenger side door had opened and Hayla had climbed in throwing her duffle in the back and her backpack by her feet before slamming the door closed as hard as she had at the house. She crossed her arms across her chest as Dean processed the scene trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

She turned towards him with a condescending look on her face. "What does it look like?" she asked as if it were the most obvious thing. "I'm coming with you." she demanded.

"No. No way." Dean did not like where this was going at all

"Yes!"

He was going to say anything to get her out of this car and back in the safe house with Bobby."Damn it! I'm trying to be responsible here!"

"And I'm trying to get to know you."

Dean's mouth hung open. That was a low blow. "Oh that is…that's really...unfair."

She paused her face taking on a softer tone. "I just met you," she said almost pleadingly. "No way I'm losing you this quick." Dean sighed and gave her a sympathetic look. "Screw that." She turned back and looked out the windshield with determination. Dean continued to stare at her. She turned meet his eyes and raised her eyebrows. "Drive!" Dean rolled his eyes. This kid was more like him than he knew. He was in for a long trip.

* * *

"Yes Bobby she's with me." Hayla listened to the one sided conversation. "No she hasn't given me any trouble," he looked over at her, "...yet." Hayla gave a little smirk at this and continued to play with her locket as she looked out the window at the fast passing street lights. Dean sure did speed a lot. "Yeah I'll keep her safe no worries. Okay. Bye." Dean hung up the phone and Hayla returned her attention to him. "So," he started uncomfortably, "what's the word Hal." She smirked at the nickname he had given her.

"I'm hungry. Let's top for a snack."

"This isn't a road trip. This is my job. We're not stopping. I shouldn't have let you come along in the first place."

Hayla scoffed. "Yeah. Like you had a choice." She dropped her feet from the dash and started looking through the glove compartment.

"You know I should put your ass on a bus home. I still could."

Hayla rolled her eyes. She knew Dean wouldn't do that. He seemed to be in a rush to get to wherever he was going. Putting her on a bus would just keep him from getting there. "Yeah. Yeah," she waved him off and pulled out a map from the compartment. She unfolded it and flipped it around. "Where are we going anyway?" she asked trying to figure out if she was holding the map upside down.

"Tupelo, Oklahoma."

She sat the map in her lap with a crunching sound. She thought back remembering that name from Dean's laptop earlier today. "The town with the dead guy?" she questioned and Dean nodded. "So you, a mechanic, need to leave in the middle of the night to some one pony town to what?" she asked not believing him. "Fix up the Casper-mobile?"

Dean shook his head a rolled his eyes. "The guys name is Edward Montgomery. His family has their grandfather's old Mustang sitting in a warehouse. They want me to fix it up and sell it," he explained.

"So they can't even wait for the body to get cold? They're a bunch of heartless sons of bitches?"

"Hey language," he scolded her and Hayla rolls her eyes. "But yeah." She scrutinized the side of his face while he looked ahead at the road. He felt her eye on him and gave her a glance. "What?"

"You're lying," she deadpanned.

"What?"

"You're a terrible liar, Dean. I can always tell when someone is lying to me. It's practically a superpower. You were lying to me at the house and you're lying to me now." He pursed his lips together and when she saw that he wasn't going to say anything else she scoffed and returned her attention to the map lying across her legs. He gave her a side glance and noticed her toying with a familiar trinket.

"What's that?" he said nodding towards the necklace.

"You never seen a locket before?" she said haughty.

Dean sighed. He'd made her mad. He could already tell she was like him when she was in this state. "May I see it?" he bit back holding out his hand.

Hayla clutched it her hand. "No," she said as if the damn thing had held her soul inside.

Deans face softened and he turned towards her. "Please?"

Hayla hesitated looking at his out stretched hand before finally reaching to the back of her neck and undoing the clasp. She gently sat the locket in his hand and watched as he looked over it. It was a small oval pendant made of bronze with a thin chain. It had simple design on the front and there wasn't anything especially extraordinary about the object. Dean opened it and instead of being the traditional two panel locket it had four all right in a long row. The first picture he recognized. It was him. He looked to be about sixteen and a smirk played on his face. The second picture was of a beautiful young girl. She had long silky brown hair that fell across her shoulders in waves. Her eyes were deep chocolate brown and swam with life and laughter. Then there was the smile that Dean had fell for the moment he had stepped out of the Impala that summer at Bobby's. That was arguable the greatest summer of his life.

The third panel was of a small child. She had a tuft of blonde hair on the top of her head and the same green eyes Dean sees looking back at him in the mirror everyday. Finally in the fourth panel was written in cursive lettering: Hayla April 2nd, 1994.

"That was around my neck when they found me on the doorstep of a foster home,' she said in a whisper. Deans face fell. "It was my mom's."

"I know." He closed the locket and placed it back in her palm. "I gave it to her." Hayla's mouth fell open as she stared at him. The locket in her hand felt ten times heavier now. Dean stared straight ahead at the road. He could still remember the day he had given her that locket.

* * *

_It was nearing the end of summer. Dean had turned sixteen that year and Bobby would loan him a truck from the junkyard when he need to go somewhere, but that hadn't crossed his mind when he was running. He ran seven blocks to Jane's house that morning the black Impala had rumbled up the drive. He hopped the fence and skipped the front steps as he ran to the porch and knocked rapidly on the door. Jane had opened the door and smiled as she saw Dean, but that smile slowly faded as she could see his distress. She stepped out onto the porch and closed the door._

_"__Dean what's wrong?" Dean didn't answer her. He rushed forward taking her face in his hand and crushing his lips against hers for a longing kiss. She put a hand on his chest and slowly pushed him back. His eyes were filled with worry. She took his face in her hands and caressed his cheek with her thumb. He leaned into the touch. "What's wrong?" she asked again. _

_He took a deep breath and looked into her deep brown eyes. "My dad is back in town." Jane gave him a questioning look as he took a step back from her to take in her face once more. "Damn it!" He turned away from her and walked down the porch. _

_"__Wait you're dads back? Dean what does that mean?"_

_"__It means I'm an idiot!" he exclaimed. He walked back over to her and took her hand. "I'm an idiot because I thought for one second that all of this," he gestured all around them, "this summer, here with you, wasn't going to blow up in my face. I thought this was going to be the one memory that was going to be untouched and untainted by my screwed up life." He reached up and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes at the warmth. "But I was wrong." He dropped his hand and walked over to the railing. "I'm leaving Janey."_

_Jane's heart dropped and she let out a shaky breath. "When?" her voice cracked._

_"__Now," he whispered. She nodded a bite her lip as tears welled in her eyes. "I would give anything to stay here. I hope you know that."_

_"__Then do it." He turned to face her. "Don't go just stay here," she plead._

_"__I can't. It's-"_

_"__Sammy," she said cutting him off. She understood Dean's connection with his brother. he couldn't be the person to stand in the way of that. She thought for a moment taking ing all of the possibilities. "Well then we'll make it work." Dean looked down at his feet. "We can-"_

_"__I didn't come here to make it work Janey."_

_Tears fell down her face. "You came to say goodbye."_

_"__When I leave here I don't know what's going to happen. All I know is that things with my dad can get pretty messy. I can't drag you into that. I won't." Jane covered her mouth to hold in a sob and sniffed. Dean walked to her and took her hand to place a light blue box in it. "I know your birthday is in two days. I was going to wait but now…" he trailed off. Jane slowly took the lid off the box to reveal a beautiful bronze locket. Dean took it out of the box and wrapped it around her neck to do the clasps. Then he took her face in his hands again and gave her a gentle goodbye kiss. He slowly pulled back and rested their foreheads together. "Goodbye Janey," he whispered and Jane's tears ran freely. He gave her one last peck on the top of her head. Then without looking back, he walked away down the porch and away from the house as Jane clutched at her stomach. Little did he know that the locket wasn the only thing he had given her. _

_Two days later, on her birthday, demons had payed Jane a visit._

**Author's note: I love reviews so please do that! I want to know what you guys think of the story, Is there anything you want me to add? Do you like Hayla? Hate her? Please let me know. Also for you DESTIEL shippers (like me) I added a little something in the next chapter. And even for those NON-DESTIEL shippers it's a really sweet moment and I hope you guys will like it. Don't forget to follow me on tumblr: **** blog/roads-unraveld****I wanted to make Hayla feel as real as possible so I post all of her outfits there and I'll post all new chapters up as well. Thank you! I hope you guys like it the next chapter is already almost done so expect that soon. :-)**


	4. Unanswered Prayers

Despite what Dean had said, hunger had overtaken both of them and they stoped at a dinner to get something to eat. "What will it be?" the greying waitress asked.

"I'll have a double bacon cheeseburger, sweetheart." Dean smiled at the waitress. She nodded and the waitress turned to Hayla.

"I'll have a veggie burger. Hold the onions."

"Coming right up."

Hayla took a drink of her water. She looked up to see Dean's eyebrows raised asking her a silent question. "What?"

"A veggie burger?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah that's usually what vegetarians eat," she laughed.

"You're a vegetarian?" he exclaimed. She nodded slowly and for a minute she thought that his head was going to explode. He shook his head in disbelief. "What else should I know about you?"

Hayla smiled. "What else do you want to know about me?" she said puffing out her chest. She couldn't help but feel a little proud of Dean's sudden interest in her.

"Well let's start with what happened when you came to find me."

"Well," she paused. She had tried to find Dean a couple times. She wasn't sure which one to talk about. "I was still in a foster home when I found out who you were. After that I spent most of my time trying to track you down. You know? I had no idea why I was given up and I wanted answers. I thought finding you would be a good place to start, but everywhere I turned was a dead end." The waitress came back and silently sat their plates in front of them. Hayla picked up a fry and pointed it at him. "You are not an easy man to find," she joked and poped the fry into her mouth. "I know you dropped out of high school at 16 around the same time my mom was pregnant, you got your GED, but records after that was just really jumbled. It was like you would disappear off the face of the earth for months or years at a time. There were news reports of you being dead...or worse. I thought about going to Bobby's just to make sense of any of it, but I thought 'What's the point?' If you really were dead or like you were portrayed on the news, it wouldn't make a difference. But then I saw the news report in Blackwater Ridge and I don't know something just snapped inside me. Next thing I knew I had left behind everything, gathered up as much money as I could get my hands on, and took the first bus to South Dakota."

"So wait," Dean said trying to understand her story," you ditched everything to come find me? ME?" he exaggerated.

"Well ditched is a strong word," She said taking a bit of her fry.

"What about your friends?"

"I'm kind of a loner."

"And no family?"

"I've been on my own for awhile. Yes."

He stared at her. Figuring out this girl was going to be harder than he had originally thought. "Just out of curiosity, in all this time you spent looking for me, why not look for your mother?"

"I did, at first." Her face fell. "And I found her."

"Where is she?" Dean's eyes had taken on a hopeful glimmer.

"Plot 246 in Mel Bay cemetery." She pushed ketchup around on her plate with another fry.

"She's dead?" He asked breathless and Hayla nods sadly.

"A mugging," she explained. Dean sat his burger down with a sigh. Jane was dead. "What was she like?" Hayla broke the silence. Dean looked at her questioningly. "Mom."

"Oh." Dean eyebrows raised. "Um." He rubbed the back of his neck. "She was," he paused looking for the right words to describe Hayla's mother. A smile graced his face just thinking about her. "She was beautiful. Much like you actually. You have her smile." Hayla smiled at the ground hearing this. "She was the most beautiful girl that I have ever met. And she knew how to laugh. It was infectious. I mean her laugh made you laugh it was ridiculous," he chuckled. "She was very into cars." Dean's face had noticeably lit up when he talked about Jane. "I remember her absolutely oozing when my dad pulled up in our 67' Impala and she spent the next three hours worshiping the thing. And she was smart and spontaneous and fun. She always knew how to have a good time. But she was also very headstrong and determined and stubborn." He gave her a knowing look. "Sound like anyone you know?" he asked and she rolled her eyes. He sighed. "When I was with your mom everything about my life seemed...easier. Like I could just forget all the bad stuff in my life. She was warm, kind, caring and when I was around her everything just disappeared and I could breath." Dean looked off distantly recalling that one summer he will never forget.

"Oh my god," Hayla said breaking him out of his trance. "You were in love her," she says matter of factly.

"Yeah. Yeah I was." He chewed on the inside of his cheek guilty.

"Then why did you leave?" Her question was so blunt it had caught him off guard. His mouth hung open for a minute and he sighed before reaching forward and resting his hand over hers on the table.

"Listen," he got her attention and she looked him straight in the eyes. "If I had known, when I left, if I had known about you, I would have done anything and everything human possible to do right by the both of you. But I was stupid," He said spitting venom at himself."When my dad came back that summer I felt I didn't have a choice but to leave. My dad had brainwashed me. Family came before everything, and now I come to find that I wasn't leaving with my family, I was leaving behind my family. That will always be my biggest mistake." A single tear had escaped Hayla's eye and rolled down her cheek. "I am so sorry," He said sincerely.

Hayla wiped the tears away on her face and Dean fidgeted uncomfortably. He took his hand of hers with a jerk and ran his fingers through his hair. "Alright," he cleared his throat. "Enough of that." He dug in his wallet and pulled out a few bills throwing them down on the table. "We should hit the road. I'll just get these to go." He grabbed both of their plates and walked away from the table.

* * *

They finally had reached the heart of Tupelo making an eleven hour trip into eight hours with the way Dean drove. When they finally got there Dean had checked them into a hotel. Hayla walked into the room and threw her bags on the bed before turning to Dean.

"Alright I'll be back."

"I'm not going with you?"

"What no. Sit." He points at her bed and she sits at the end of it crossing her arms. She glared at him stubbornly. "Stay," he says holding his arms out to her.

"Roll over. Play dead," She deadpans.

"I could do without the sass," Dean says as he shoves things into bags. "I'm just trying to do my job."

"You know you could take me with you. I know a few things about cars."

"Yeah so Bobby tells me." He throws the bag over his shoulder and looks back at her. "Well you can't come with me because you," he trails off looking for an excuse and he snaps his fingers, "do not have your mechanics licence." He smirks a little bit proud of the down right lie he just told her.

She cocks her head to the side and gives him a questioning look. "Do you?" The smirk falls from his face and he glares at her. "You know you told me about my mom and thats all great and everything, but when are you going to start telling the truth about you?"

He rolls his eyes. "Just stay here." He walks out the door and and takes off in his piece of junk car. As soon as she sees it pull out of the parking lot she falls back on the bed with a groan. What was she supposed to do in a boring hotel room while Dean was gone for who knows how long?

She started by getting a shower and changing her clothes into jeans and a black tanktop. The next few hours she spent changing channels on the television, jumping on the beds, unpacking and repacking her bags, ordering room service just to spite Dean, playing with the thermostat, and even reading the bible a little. She threw the book across the room with a groan. She was bored out of her mind and it was already rounding onto 6 o'clock with no word from Dean.

"Screw it," She mumbled to herself and threw on some grey boots and a matching military jacket before walking out of the hotel room.

* * *

Dean could use a drink. He had spent all day chasing down leads interviewing witnesses, researching into lore and all he could come up with was that the spirt was linked to an old amulet that was now with an Abi Winslet. It was already rolling upon nine o'clock and he didn't want to bother her now. He was sure she would be safe for one more night. So he decided to go to a bar in town called Henry's.

He walked into the dark building and the place was bursting with energy. It' was still early in the night but it looked like everyone had been partying for hours. The music was turned up and drinks were flowing. Dean took in the crazy scene and was shocked to see who was in the middle of the crowd. On top of a pool table, bottle in her hand, and dancing with a couple other girls was Hayla herself. He had left her in a hotel room and she decided to turn a bar into a full on night club? Dean was beyond furious. He was about to march over there and drag her back to the hotel room, but he stopped. Her smile had grown from ear to ear and she was laughing as everyone around fed happily off the energy. She is definitely Jane's daughter. She embodied fun. Hell, Dean had almost forgot what fun looked like.

She laughed as a row of guys lined up down the table. She walked down pouring a good amount of the amber liquid into each of the guys mouths. When she got to the end of the line she bent down to the man's eye level with a sly grin. He handed her a shot and had one for himself. They downed them in two seconds and smiled at each other. Hayla grabbed the back of the man's neck and pulled him in for a long kiss before standing up to continue dancing with the to her two girls happily.

Okay Dean had had enough. He stormed through the crowd till he gets to the table. "Hayla!" he screams over the music.

She takes the bottle away from her mouth and looked down at him. Her eyes widen with excitement. "Hey!" She happily waves at him slightly intoxicated. She jumps down from the table and stubbles slightly. "You joined the party!" Dean yanks the bottle from her hand. "Hey!" she pouts. He slams it down on the table almost shattering it and turns back to her with a scowl on his face. All happiness is wiped from her face and is replaced by her sheepishly staring at the ground.

"Grab your coat we're leaving!" He growls out and walks away to the door. She walks over to the bar and takes her jacket off one of the stools before following him out.

* * *

The ride back to the hotel was silent. Dean was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. Hayla played with her hands in her lap not daring to look at him. He was speeding so violently she had no idea had they hadn't gotten pulled over or how he slowed down fast enough to not going crashing through the hotel building. Dean parked the car and slammed the door as he got out. Hayla flinched at the force and hesitantly got out after him. When she walked through the door he was standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed over his chest, jaw locked. She silently stripped her jacket off and threw it on the bed before closing the door.

"Alright give it to me," he held out his hand and she could tell that he was trying to keep his voice calm.

"Give you what?"

"The fake ID you used to get into that bar," he growled. She stared at his hand for a moment and he pushed forward more demanding. She huffed and reached into her back pocket pulling out the small plastic card before slapping it down in his hand. He walked it over to bathroom sink and dropped it in. Then he grabbed the hotel matchbook and struck one before dropping it in as well. Hayla watch silently as her mouth fell open. Dean walked back over to her having dealt with business he let all of his anger out now. "I can't believe you disobeyed me!" he screamed at her. "I had one rule 'Stay in the room' and you broke it!"

"I was here for hours. I got bored!" she screamed matching his anger.

"I don't care! When my dad gave me an order I stuck to it!"

"Well guess what! I am not you, and you are not your father!" she spat back.

"Yeah? Well I'm doing a hell of a job turning into him. I'm terrified of screwing all of this up, and being the kind of dad he was." The words had left his mouth before he could stop them. They both visually cooled down. Neither of them believed he just shared something like that.

"Finally a truth," she whispered. Dean walked over and sat on the bed with a heavy sigh. He ran his hands over his face and gave her a sad look.

"Hayla, why did you find me?"

She sighed as well and took a seat beside him with slumped shoulders. "Cause I thought you would have wanted to know who I was. I wanted to be a part of your life.

"I do want to know you. I do. But, you don't want to be apart of my life. My life, it sucks." Hayla looked at him in disbelief. She had been with him a week now and she still couldn't believe how little he knew about her. Anger raced through her veins and she shot up from the bed.

"You wanna talk about life sucking? My life sucked," she exclaimed. His faced looked shocked at her sudden outburst. "My mom dropped me off on doorstep on my first birthday and took off! I ended up in the foster system and caught a break when I was adopted by my own family. I lived with them until I was five but then they had their own kid so they sent me back. For years I was bounced around foster homes all over the country until I was fourteen and one couple decided that I was just a lost cause and kicked me out. I was homeless and I was scared and all I wanted was my parents. All I wanted was a home. And then I found you and I thought 'Thank god, my prayers are answered.' But ever since I found you I feel more alone than ever. You're lying to me you're avoiding me. I don't feel like I'm part of a family. I feel like what I've always been," he gave her a questioning look. " an orphan," she explained. She wiped away the angry tears on her cheeks and turned back to him calmer. "I get that you're scared of turning into your dad or whatever, but you're all I've got." Hayla grabbed her jacket again and stormed out of the room before Dean had a chance to stop her. He didn't even try to stop her. She'd come back eventually after she had cooled off. He just need to give her her time.

She decided to take a walk. Just to collect her thoughts. She knew she had been hard on Dean. It wasn't his fault all of those things had happened to her. He didn't even know she existed till six days ago.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a blood curdling scream came from a few feet away. On instinct she ran forward towards the sound. "Help me!" she heard again. She finally reached the house the scream had came from and hesitated as her hand reached for the door knob. She had no idea what the screaming was about and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She should just call the cops. Damn it! She left in such a fuss that her cell phone is back at the hotel.

That's when a woman slammed into the window lining the door. "Help me!" she cried to Hayla before she was ripped back into the darkness of the house with another terrified scream. Hayla scrambled for the door knob again but the door wouldn't budge. She pounded and slammed against it, she tried breaking the windows with the potted plants, everything to try and get in the house.

Then, the screaming stopped. Hayla sat the plant back on the ground and took a tentative step towards the door. She reached for the knob again and this time it opened with ease. She stepped inside and felt the temperature drop about twenty degrees making her shiver. "Hello," she called out with a shaky voice, but no one answered. There was a dim light at the end of the hall. She walked further towards it. "Hello," she called again. She stepped into the small kitchen at the end of the hall and a rusted metallic smell instantly overtook her. She saw someone lying on the floor a few feet away. Taking a few steps around the the island she saw a gruesome sight. The woman from the window was on the floor lying in a pool of her own blood. Her neck was slit to the point where her head was almost completely separated from her body. She was dead.

"Oh my god." Hayla covered her mouth to hold in silent screams. She stumbled away from the corpse and backed herself into a counter. That's when the lights flickered and a noise was heard from the living room. Hayla looked around and spotted a wood block full of kitchen knives. She grabbed a butcher knife and held it with a shaky hand. She looked around the room taking panicked breaths. The she saw a shadow standing in the corner of the dining room ten feet away. Her eyes widened in panic and her heart raced. Then she made a dash for front door, but was blocked by a woman. Hayla froze. She came out of no where and had a sinister grin on her face as she slowly walk towards her. She looked pale grey and was wear ratty clothing. Hayla held out the knife ready to take a stab at her. The woman flew at her in a second and pinned her against the wall, knocking the knife from her hands. She wrapped her cold hand around Hayla's neck and lifted her from the ground choking her. Hayla coughed and gaped for air and kicked her her legs for solid ground. A loud shot rang through the hallway and the woman disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Hayla dropped to the ground and gasped, air refilling her lungs. She looked over at the front floor to see a man with a familiar face holding a gun. "Dean," she said in a rasp.

"Hayla? What are you doing here?" He rushed to her side and pulled her up

"I heard someone scream," she explained. She points to the place the woman was standing in not two minutes ago. "That woman, how did you?"

"No time to explain," he cuts her off. "She'll be back. Come on." He grabbs her arm and starts pulling her shocked form up the stairs.

"Wait hold on a damn minute." She pulls her arm from his grasp. "Who are you?"

He gives her a sympathetic look. "Hayla-"

"Who are you?" she asks more sternly before her can give her some crap excuse.

He sensed this is what she thought he was doing. "I lied before I admit that. This." he waved his arms around the scene, "is my job. I kill ghosts."

"Ghosts?" How could she believe any of this. It was ridiculous.

"Yes."

"That woman you killed her?" She looked down the stairs again.

"More like just stalled. She'll be back. Listen, Hayla. I need you to listen." He snapped her attention back to him. "Take this salt," he said handing her a carton, "and go in that room. Make a circle and don't step out of it no matter what."

"What?" she asked not understanding. Just then the woman reappears behind Dean. "Dean watch out!" She points and Dean whirls around and shoots the woman in the head making her disappear again.

"Go!" He pushes her towards the room and she runs.

They both ran into the bedroom and Dean slammed the door behind them. He took the salt from Hayla's hand and put a line of it across the floor. Then he walked over to the bathroom door and the two windows and did the same thing. "That should keep us protected long enough." He walked over to the dresser on the other side of the room and started sifting through it.

"Long enough for what? What are you looking for?"

"An amulet. I thinks she's tethered to it somehow," he said as he searched through the bed side tables. "Start a fire." He pointed to the small fire place on the wall.

Hayla ran over to the fire place and started putting logs in. "Why am I doing this?"

"Cause we got to burn the thing to kill her."

Hayla pulled out her lighter and lit the logs. "Of course we do."

Dean threw the drawer on the vanity open and pulled out a bronze amulet. "Gotcha."

Then all the doors and windows opened blowing the salt away and the girl showed up in the middle of the room. Dean stood beside Hayla and grabbed his shotgun trying to take a shot at the woman, but the dresser flew towards them. Dean pushed Hayla out of the way and dropped his gun as he tried to keep the piece of furniture from crushing him.

Hayla saw the shotgun lieing a couple feet away. She quickly got to her feet and made a dash for the gun but was flown across the room and hit her head hard against the wall. She fell to the ground unconscious.

The woman started walking towards Hayla with a wicked grin. "Hey bitch!" Dean called pinned against the wall. He pulled out the amulet from his pocket. The womans face lit with recognition. Dean turned to the open flame a few feet away and tossed the thing in.

"No!" the woman screamed and ran forward but by the time she reached him she had caught in flames and disappeared. Dean was able to push the dresser off of him with ease now. He rushed over to Hayla and checked her over.

"Hayla." He took her face in his hands. "Come on we got to go," he tried to coax her awake. "Come on Hayla. Wake up," he could start to hear the desperation in his voice. He moved his hand to the back of her head to sit her up but when he did he felt a sticky substance. He pulled his hand back and found spots of blood. He scooped her up in his arms urgently and ran for the door.

He got to the local hospital as fast as possible and ran through the doors holding Hayla. "Help!" he called out and nurses started rushing forward. "My daughter she needs help! She hit her head." He lies her on a stretcher and they carry her away from him.

* * *

He was told the there was no internal bleeding or bruising. Hayla should wake up when she's ready to, she just needs rest. Dean was visiting her in her room. He looked upon her unconscious form still dressed in her clothes that were now covered in blood salt and alcohol. He ran a hand over his face with a sigh. She was hooked up to a bunch of machines and had multiple wires coming out of her arms. He walked over to the window. The moon had cast a bright light into the dark room. He looked back at the girl before looking up into the sky. He couldn't believe he was about to do this.

"Hey, Cas," he said quietly. He shook his head. Why was he doing this? "So, I don't know what happens to angels after they-" he cut himself short. "So I don't know if you're in hell or purgatory or up on some fluffy cloud or just vanished into oblivion. I don't even know if you can hear me, but I need you to. I just need someone to talk to. Don't get me wrong I'm still mad as hell for what you did, but now," words started getting caught in his throat. "Hayla is in the hospital, and it's all my fault." a tear fell down his cheek as he continued. "I hurt everyone that I care about. Now I've even hurt my own daughter. I regret that I couldn't make things better with you before all of this happened. But I am trying to make things better right now with that little girl lying in that bed. Thing is, I don't know what to do." he sobbed. "What do I do?" he asked the empty sky. Dean looked around the room as if his long lost friend was going to magically show up and that everything would be alright. No one was coming though, and as soon as the was apparent to Dean he looked back to Hayla. He just wanted her out of this place.

Dean stalked over to the bed and ripped all of the wires out of her causing her to stir. "Dean?" she said in a haze.

He looked into her now open eyes and a small smile reached his face at her now awake."Hey," he stroked her hair. "I'm gonna get you outta here. Okay?" She nodded and reached her arms out as he scoops her up in his. He walks out into the dimly lit hallways and carries her from the hospital with her face buried in his neck.

* * *

Hayla woke up in the back of the Impala, her head resting on Dean's blue military jacket. She sits up and see that the are on an open road. She she slides past Dean trying to climb into the front seat. "Hey take it easy," Dean said concerned. She plopped down in passenger seat and sighed. He glance over her. She was rubbing the back of her head with a wince. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," she bites out dropping her hand from her head.

His eyebrows raise at her hostility. "Fine," he says back coyly.

It's silent for a few minutes before she breaks it again. "Dean who is Cas?" she asks bluntly. Dean is caught off guard.

"It doesn't matter." He shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

"Again with the lying," she groans annoyed. she had really thought that they were starting to grow past that.

"Look I don't want to lie to you-"

"Then don't," she cuts him off. "Just tell me," she practically begs. "I can handle it." She is trying to reassure him but Dean is still so unsure. Could he really bring her into this world of darkness. She scoffs when he doesn't say anything and looks back out the windshield glaring.

"Demons," he blurts out and her head snaps back to him. "Monsters, ghosts, they're all real. And me and my brother hunt them," he explains and he can see her trying to process this information. "Cas, Castiel he was an angel."

"Was?"

"Yeah. Was. He was my friend, he was my partner, and he betrayed me. Needless to say things didn't end well. Cas he, well he died." Hayla's face gave a sympathetic look. Even she could tell the whatever the Cas person did took a huge toll on her father. "So like I said, it doesn't matter."

Dean looked over at her and she straightened up puffing out her chest. "See," she reassured him. "Handled." He gave her a smile. She was tough he'll give her that. She gave him a smile next and sank back into her seat comfortably. "Where to next?" she asked confidently.

"Next," he said sinking into the casual toned conversation, "we have to get a new car."

She nodded. This clunker of a car finally made sense. Dean had stolen it. "Where are we?"

"Fayetteville, Arkansas." Hayla thought for a second and remembered something.

"We can always use my car," she suggested.

"You have a car?"

"Yeah it's in a garage about an hours way out."

"Are you even old enough to drive?" he joked.

She cocked her head to the side and gave him a cold bitch face that would probably put Sam to shame. "I'm seventeen ass hat." Dean laughed. "The garage is in Harrison." Dean shook his head still not completely sure. "Oh come on," Hayla reaches in her bag and pulled out a set of keys and jingle them at him. "It's a 72'." She grinned pleadingly at him.

He gave her a glare. "A 72' what?"

* * *

"A volkswagen? Really?" He said as they stood in front of the pale yellow bug.

"I like it," she says offended. "It was a gift. Plus it beats these clunkers that you've been burning through." Dean looks over the car again and gives a deep sigh.

"Alright." Dean took the keys from her. "Hop in."

"Woah! No, no, no!" she calls after him to get him to stop. She walks up and snatches the keys back. "My car. My drive. You hop in." She threw her stuff in the back of the car and got in the driver seat to start up the car. Dean stood there watching her dumbstruck. She rolled her eyes and stuck her head out the window and called to him, "Are you coming?" Dean laughed and walked forward. He threw his stuff in the back as well and climbed in the passenger seat. She flashed him a big grin, shifted the car in gear, and pulled out of the garage.

**Authors note: Sorry, this chapter was a little on the longer side. I had a lot I wanted to get in, but I think it turned out pretty well. Let me know what you think. I always love reviews. Again go check out my tumblr: .com I always post new chapters and all of Hayla's outfits there. Thanks again!**


	5. The Mentalist

It had been a couple days since the incidents in Tupelo and Hayla and Dean had fallen into a steady rhythm. The would wake up in the morning, get some breakfast, fill up the cars tank. Then they would drive only stopping for lunch or to pick up snacks, and when it finally reached sun down they would pull into the nearest town, and check into a hotel a for the night. Then they would wake up and do it all over again.

Is was kind of an unspoken schedule they had set after picking up Hayla's bug from the garage. They weren't on the road for more than an hour after before Dean had called Bobby, and boy did he get an ear full. "You haven't been a dad for more than a week and already you've corrupted the girl and got her landed in the hospital!" Bobby scolded him. After about fifteen minutes of that Hayla finally stopped finding the whole situation hysterical and assured Bobby that she was fine. Dean told him he was going to give her a few days to recover before he started looking for another case and Bobby had calmed down. He told them that he would see them whenever they rolled back up there and that it better be soon because he was already missing Hayla's smiling face around the gloomy house.

Dean and Hayla had spent the next few days getting to know each other a little better. Not that they had a choice. What else were they supposed to do in a car for at least eight hours a day every day.

Dean had mostly spoke about his brother Sam. He never said exactly why he wasn't around for the time being just that they had a falling out and Hayla wasn't going to push the topic more than that. Still he raved about his brother highly. He talked about how he was so smart and how proud he was. He talked about how he was addicted to research and how he went to Stanford on a full ride. Hayla was impressed at this. That's how Dean had found out that Hayla had never finished high school. She was on her own before she had even gotten to finish her freshman year.

It was then that Dean came back to the hotel one night with small portable laptop. He sat it on Hayla's bed beside her and then walked over to the mini bar to grab a beer. "What's that?" Hayla asked.

Dean popped his beer open and took a swig from it. "It's a laptop," he said plainly.

"Yeah I know what it is. We have one." She pointed to the laptop sitting on the small table not five feet away.

"Yeah, but this one is for hunting and research."

She narrowed her eyes suspicious. "Then what is this one for?" He sat down his beer on the table and took a paper out of his back pocket and held it up.

"I faked some documents and pulled some strings." He handed her the piece of paper and she opened.

"You enrolled me in online school?" She gave him a shocked expression.

"I didn't finish actual high school, but even I got my GED. There is no way any daughter of mine isn't finishing high school." Hayla gave him a soft caring smile. He coughed and in a stern voice he said, "You're going back to school. End of discussion." He turned away and got on his laptop to start looking for their next case. Hayla ran her hand across the silver laptop. She loved that Dean was starting to act like a responsible caring parent even if he tried to act like he wasn't.

Over the past few days they had realized how much they had in common. They both loved cars and Dean continued on to talk about his '67 Impala that he calls Baby. They both have a love for pie. Dean loves traditional apple but Hayla goes for the more daring choice with black raspberry. And when they weren't talking they spent the rest of the time rocking out to the best of mullet rock.

They also had their differences though. Dean's obsession with burgers had nothing over Hayla's love for gummy bears. She would eat them all day if Dean had let her and one day he actually did just see if she could without getting a stomachache. Hayla also had a love for dogs. She talked about how she had one, a blue-eyed husky named Bear, back when she was in the foster system. That's how Hayla had found out about Dean's very stern 'no dogs in the Impala rule'.

They have been getting along greatly and Hayla was happy. Dean on the other hand couldn't shake this feeling. Like at any moment the other shoe was going to drop and something or someone or hell even himself was going to ruin everything in the blink of an eye.

They had kept traveling straight east. Well not so much straight as in zigzags. They went from Oklahoma to Arkansas to Indiana to North Carolina and had finally made their way up to Virgina.

Hayla sat against the door of the car while she waited for Dean to pick up some breakfast. As he was walking back she saw him check his phone again for the umpteenth time for any calls from Sam. Judging by the look on his face there were none. She pops another gummy bear in her mouth as he approaches the car. He looks up and gives her a disapproving look. "Will you put the candy away? I just got food," he complains. He opens the driver side door and hops in.

"Sorry." She climbs in after him and throws the gummies in her backpack.

"Here," he digs through the paper bag in his lap labeled 'FAT MACK'S Bar-B-Q Rib Shack'. He pulls out two small take out containers. "I got you a veggie burrito," he says handing it to her.

"Thanks you're so thoughtful," Hayla says mockingly. Dean rolls his eyes at her and she laughs while taking a bite. He starts up the car and the radio blares with some talk show.

"You're listening to Morning Chaos with me, Banana's Foster," it says through the speakers.

"The hell I am," Dean grumbles. He goes to turn off the station but stops.

"And now some nes in the weird. Two very odd murders to be exact. Mediums are dying in Lily Dale, the most psychic town in America." Dean puts the car in reverse and starts speeding out of the parking lot and whipping Hayla around in her seat.

"Think it's your kind of thing?" she asks steadying herself again.

"It would be a hell of a coincidence if it wasn't. I mean psychic killings? It's a clear beacon of supernatural." His eyes are trained on the road the food far forgotten. Hayla could tell Dean liked this job. Even if she thinks he's was ten pounds of crazy in a five pound sack.

The drive to Lily Dale takes a few hours then they were checked into another hotel room for the night. By morning Dean was in the bathroom checking himself over in a suit and tie. Hayla held his black suit jacket and dug through the pockets. She pulls out what at first she thinks to be a wallet until she opens it. "FBI?" she asks looking over the very real looking badge. Dean sighed heavily. She had problem with snooping he had discovered. He snatches the coat and the badge from her. "Isn't that illegal?"

"Highly," he says pulling the jacket on and stuffing the badge back in his pocket.

"Then why are you doing it?"

"Would you trust the FBI? Let them into crime scenes? Answer all of their questions?" he asks straightening his tie. Hayla shrugs.

"I guess."

"Thats why." He turns back towards her and she narrows her eyes knowing what hes about to ask her. "Alright I'm leaving. Please please please, stay in the room?"

"Yeah cause that worked so well the first time," she says sarcastically.

"Well this time I'm not telling you. I'm politely asking you to stay. Plus this time," he pulls out Hayla's new laptop and hands it to her, "you've got school work to do." Hayla throws the machine on the bed with a groan.

"What if I get hungry?" Dean pulls out a wad of cash and throws it on her bed.

"Order room service." Hayla sighs disappointed and Dean feels for the girl. He knows what if feels like to have your dad go out on a hunt a leave you in some scevy hotel room for who knows how long, but he doesn't know what else to do to keep her safe. "You know what I forgot!" he exclaims as a thought came to him. He walks over to his duffle and pulls out a small box. He walks over to her and hands it over timidly. "I got you something."

Hayla takes it with a small grin on her face. The takes the lid off of the small box to reveal a small silver pentagram held on the sides with a leather band. She takes out the bracelet and runs her thumb over the shining star. "Thank you," she breathes out. then she slips it on her wrist and Dean nods.

"Just wear it like your life depends on it, cause it does."

"I will," she assures him.

"Alright," he ruffles her hair and she pushes his hand away with a laugh. He walks over to the door and opens it. "Stay in the room," he says before walking out and driving away. Hayla groans and throws herself back on the bed.

* * *

Hayla close the laptop and rubs her dry eyes. She has been doing school work for about three hours now and Dean still hasn't come back. Her stomach growls under her purple henley tank top. It's still around breakfast time. She grabs the room service menu off of the side table and as she feared it's nothing but meat, meat, and more meat. Not even a simple cheese pizza. She glances at the clock and thinks about waiting for Dean. He should be home soon… she thinks. Her stomach grumbles again and she sighs. She'll only be gone for a second. She'll pick up food and be back before Dean even knows she's gone.

With her game plan in mind she throws on her black boots and military jacket and heads out the door.

* * *

The streets of Lily Dale is one long freak show. You couldn't throw a rock and not hit a building that didn't have to deal with a bunch of mumbo jumbo crap. The worst part of it was things were extra hyped up because of some annual psychic festival. She finally had passed every building that had Reading or Psychic in the name and reached a restaurant. She went in with her black skirt sway in the wind and immediately regretted it. The place was even more of a freak show on the inside than on the outside. But that wasn't the worst part.

"Hayla?" a gruff voice called to her left.

She closed her eyes and silently cursed to herself. She chances a look toward the voice and isn't surprised to see a very unhappy Dean storming her way. "Hi, Dean." She gives him a guilty smile as he scowled down at her.

He crosses his arms. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought I asked you to stay at the hotel."

"Well I'm sorry you booked us at the beer, bacon, and burger room service hotel." She threw her hands up in the air. "I got hungry. I didn't have breakfast."

"What about those gummy bears you love so much?"

"Aren't you supposed to discourage me from eating candy?"

"Weren't you supposed to stay in the room?" She looks down at her feet and he runs his hand over his face. "Next time call me. I'll bring you something," he sighs. She nods and he gestures for her to follow him. He he pulls up a chair and sits down at a table, She notices another man with shoulder length brown hair as she takes a seat and he gives her a strange look, examining her. Hayla feel his eyes boring a hole in the side of her face and she shoots him and angry questioning look back.

"What?" she snaps at him. He's about to speak when Dean cuts him off.

"Hayla, this is my younger brother Sam." Realization hits her and Hayla nods her head understandingly.

"Ahhh, so this is Sam," she says knowingly. Sam scrunches his eyebrows together.

" Sam," Dean speaks again, "this is Hayla...my daughter." Sam's eyebrows raise practically to his hairline on his shocked face. He's staring at Dean in disbelief and Dean shoots him back a look that says he still doesn't quite believe it either. His gaze shifts back to Hayla and she gives him a smile.

"Surprise." Sam opens his mouth to speak again but the waiter comes over to their table.

"Hello. Welcome," he greets Hayla with a smile and she immediately wants to smack it off his face. "What can I get you?"

"Blueberry pancakes and coffee, cream and sugar. Thanks."

He gives her another smile and looks into her eyes. "Your aura erupts with righteousness."

The waiter walked away and Hayla gave him a strange look. She felt like she had just been word violated in some manner. "What the hell did he just say to me?" she asked Dean and he rolled his eyes.

Sam looked like he had seen a ghost as he stared between Dean and Hayla. "When the hell did you get a daughter!" he exclaims.

"Remember when we were tracking down the leviathan that jacked our faces, and Bobby said we had a situation?"

"Guilty," Hayla says raising her hand.

"Huh," Sam says in disbelief. "So you two have just been driving around for the past week and a half?"

"Pretty much," Dean says taking a sip of his coffee.

"You really think that a good idea?" he whispers even though Hayla can still hear him. He looks at her and smiles. "You know, with your mechanic career," he says trying to sound nonchalant. Hayla rolls her eyes.

"You're a worse liar than he is." She nods to Dean. Sam gives her a questioning look and then looks at Dean.

"She knows," he explains as the waiter sets down Hayla and Dean's order.

"She know? How?"

"I was attacked by ghost," she says almost proudly. "I ended up in the hospital, cause I hit my head pretty hard. It hurt like a bitch.""Hey! Language," Dean scold her then hands her the syrup. "Just eat your pancakes and be quiet." She rolls her eyes as she drowns her the blueberries in sugary goodness. She takes a bite and hears Dean snap at some woman, "Can I help you?"

Hayla looks up to see a slightly aged woman with curly red hair and a terrified look on her face. "You're the brothers from the-" she stammers as she reaches for her phone.

"Oh, no, no, no, no," Sam rushes to stop her. "The Winchester guys on the news a

couple weeks back? No. We get that a lot."

"Yeah, no. Those depraved killers got put down like the dogs that they were. Us on the

other hand, we're completely harmless," Dean says very convincingly.

"Oh, yeah!" the woman laughs as she walks up to the table window. "I'm sorry. Silly me. And I can see by your energies, you're completely gentle," she says happily and Hayla can't help but think this woman is full of crap.

A man walks up behind the woman and puts his arm around her. "Excuse my friend," he apologizes in a thick accent. "She's excitable. Sweetheart, look at them, hmm? They're FBI." Dean and Sam exchange looks. "I'm Russian. We can spot the law. You must be here about the tragedies."

"Oh, we're just beside ourselves about what happened," she says mournfully.

"Yeah. And so close to festival season, huh?" Hayla says in a snarky manner and Sam notices Hayla has inherited Dean's same respect for locals.

"Yeah- no-"

"Of course we are worried. We have no idea what's going on, huh?" he interrupts the woman from putting her foot in her mouth. He takes out a business card and hands it to Sam. "Nikolai," he introduces himself. "Let me know if I can help you. I'm highly intuitive."

"Nikolai Lishin, spoon bender?" Sam asks sceptically

"Mm. World famous." Nikolai picks ups Sams spoon. "Come to my demonstration at the festival, huh?" He makes a hand motion over the spoon and grunts but nothing happens. Now Hayla is sure everyone in this town has completely lost it. "I teach you to harness the power of your mind." He puts the very intact very normal spoon back on the table. "Come, let's leave them be." Nikolai ushers to the woman.

"Your daughter is very beautiful," she gushes to Dean. "She looks just like you."

Dean nods. "Thanks," he says a little uncomfortable. The woman smiles brightly and walks away to to her table. "So glad we decided to vacation here, huh? Right?" Dean says sarcastically and Hayla laughs as she takes another bite of pancakes.

Sam pulls his case file back on the table. "All right. Here we go. First death… second death," he says as he opens it. He slides the file over to Dean. It's open to a photograph."

"What am I looking at?" he asked as they got to work.

"Well, see this?" Sam pointed to the picture. "Now, this is Imelda Graven, death number one. She was brained by her own crystal ball." Hayla looked over the file as she ate.

"Bummer, and ironic," Dean laughed. He turns over a page. The next photograph is of the medium who was stabbed by the planchette. Dean looks back at the first photograph. "Same necklace?" he observes.

"Yeah. See, Imelda gave it to Goldy in her will."

"Okay, so, cursed object, maybe?"

"Worth looking into. Goldy's next of kin lives in town, also a psychic," Sam says less than enthusiastic.

"Oh, good. I haven't had my fill." Sam pours sugar in his coffee and as he does the spoon bends in his other hand. Hayla drops her fork in shock and looks over at Nikolai's table.

"He broke my spoon," Sam says throwing it down on the table slightly upset. Dean picks it up and looks over at Nikolai shocked as well

* * *

They all walk out of the restaurant towards Hayla's car. "Dude a bug?" Sam asks Dean sceptically.

He hold up his hand as if surrendering. "It's not mine I swear." He points at Hayla and Sams gives a small chuckle. Hayla climbs in the back seat and lets Sam sit up front with his brother. The car ride to this girls house was, to say the least, awkward. They all sat in silence as Sam and Dean took turns shifting in their seats. Hayla debats saying something, anything to break the silence but then thought against it.

Once they pull up to the house they had all step out of the car but Dean stops Hayla at her door. "No, you're not coming," he says sternly.

"What?" she asks offended.

"This woman needs to believe that we're real FBI agents. If you're with us she's not going to tell us anything," he explains. She gives him a glare then looks over her shoulder to give a look to Sam. He shrugs and she takes that as a sign of agreement.

"Fine," she huffs and sits back in the car with her arms crossed. Dean closes the door behind her and she watches as the walk towards the house. Two women came out and who she assumes is Goldy's granddaughter says goodbye to her friend before inviting the brothers inside.

Hayla sits quietly in the car as they talk to the woman. she scrolls through her phone but nothing seem interesting enough to entertain her. She throws it across the seat and turns to looking out the window and watching as the cars pass by. A blue minivan zooms past the window and that when she notices it. There is a figure on the other side of the street just under a tree. It was a woman. She was pale and in a long gown. Hayla couldn't make out her face but something about the woman made her stomach turn.

Dean and Sam got back and she watched as they silently got in the car. When she looked back at the tree she was gone. "We have to make another stop. Do you want to be dropped off at the hotel?" Dean asks while Hayla looks out the window. When she doesn't answer he looks in the rearview mirror at her. "Hal?" He breaks her out of her trance and she blinks.

"What?" she asks unaware Dean had even spoken to her.

"You want to go back to the hotel?" She glances back out the window searching for the woman once more. She still had a sick feeling in her stomach.

"No. No, I'll just stay with you guys." She give Dean an uneasy smile through the mirror.

"Alright." He nods and starts the car to head to their next destination.

* * *

They pull up to The Emporium and Hayla got out with the men. "What are you doing?" Dean asked her.

"Dean it's a store, not the Pentagon," she snaps at him. "They'll let me in without a badge." She closes the car door and walks ahead of the men into the store.

"Shut up Sam," Dean scolds as his brother tries not to laugh at the shocked look on Dean's face.

"What?" he asks defensively but can't help but crack a smile.

Hayla is looking around the store when The brothers finally walk in. They make their way over to the counter. The man behind the counter puts down his coffee and holds his hands up to them. "Mmm. Mmm," he hums as he 'reads' them. "You're looking... for something." Hayla rolls her eyes and scoffs as she pretends to look over some items.

"You're good." Dean says sarcastically.

"You Jimmy Tomorrow?" Sam questions.

"Mm-hmm."

"We're looking for a necklace," he explained.

"Oh. Romantic."

"It would have come in with Grandma Goldy's effects." Sam pulls out a picture of Imelda

Graven and puts it on the counter to point to the necklace she is wearing.

"Oh. Yes, yes," Jimmy recalls. "Now, you do know that this is the Orb of Thessaly?"

"We did not know," Dean replies. Jimmy picks up a large metal box and puts it on the counter. Hayla makes her way over to the counter.

"Very powerful, very rare," Jimmy explained.

"Let me guess. Very expensive," Dean says with a smile.

"Worth every penny." Jimmy opens the metal case and takes out a small leather box and opens it to reveal the necklace.

"Well, in that case…" Dean and Sam both reach for their badges and hold them out to Jimmy. "...we'll be taking the state's-evidence discount," Dean finishes.

"What's going on?" he questions.

"A murder investigation that we'd like to personally thank you for not obstructing." Sam reaches out to take the necklace but Kimmy grabs his wrist.

"You know, I give private energetic readings."

"No, thanks." Sam pulls his arm back.

"A loss weighs on you. You're angry. It's complicated. Come see me, Agent." He holds a business card out to Sam and he shoves it in his jacket pocket.

Hayla looks at the necklace still in the box and gets annoyed. "Oh for the love of-" she exclaims and pushes her way past the men. She makes her way over to the counter and gestures for Jimmy to come closer. He leans closer to the girl and she leans over to whisper in his ear. His eyes widen and the boys can't tell if it's from fear or just plain shock. When Hayla pulls away he looks at her a visibly swallows. In a hurry he closes the box and hands the necklace over to Hayla. "Thanks, Jimmy. We'll see you," Hayla says with a smile and walks out.

The men walk out after her. They all walk towards the car while Hayla examines the necklace. Went a little "Mentalist" on you there, didn't he?: Dean asks. Sam glances at him but doesn't answer. "All right. Next question. What's an Orb of Thessaly?"

"I know one thing," Hayla says closing the box annoyed. "It's made in Taiwan." She hands the box to Dean. "The necklace is a fake."

"Oh, a fake, around here. Imagine that. 'Course, that means that whatever's killing mediums is still out there." They all get into the bug and start to drive off. Sam looks back at Hayla with a confused look.

"How did you get him to give you the necklace?" He questions.

"Let's just say usually know how to get what I want." Sam nods still confused, but doesn't asks anything else on the way to the hotel.

* * *

The next morning Sam woke Dean and Hayla up with a pounding on the door. He had said something about a call and another murder. Dean got dressed in his FBI getup, he gave Hayla his "stay in the room" speech even though he knew it was pointless and he knew he was going to find her on the streets at some point. He just figure it would buy him some time. He was wrong.

As soon as they left Hayla got dressed in black tank top and jeans. She pulled on her black boots and her brown leather jacket and was out the door. She had gone back to Melanie's house to see if the woman was once again there. She searched around the tree and the near by wooded area but no such luck.

She pulls herself from the trees and was just about to go back to the hotel when her little yellow bug pulls up in front of Melanie's house. She still thinks it's hilarious the Dean, Mr. Macho, had stepped anywhere near her volkswagon, but she chooses not to comment on it. She jogs over to the other side of the street and runs up to the guys. "Hey," she breathes out. "What's going on?"

Dean rolled his eyes at her presence as Sam explains, "Melanie gave us a call. We're gonna check it out."

"Stay here." Dean points to the ground. Hayla rolls her eyes and nods. The boys enter the house and Hayla leans against the car to wait for them. It wasn't long until she felt a chill on the back of her neck and that sick feeling in her stomach. She turned around and there standing not ten feet away in the middle of the street was the woman. She looked at Hayla like she was staring into her soul. It became very apparent to Hayla now that this woman was indeed a ghost. She gasped and ran for the house, bursting through the door.

"Dean!" She called into the house. She ran into the living area and found the three of them. Dean shot from the couch and made his way over to her in big strides. "There was this woman she was under a tree and them she was in the street," Hayla explains paniced with frantic movements. Dean grabs arms and bends down to her eye level trying to calm her down. "She was pale and old and she looked at me." Hayla takes a deep breath as she looks into Deans green eyes.

"Who is this?" Melanie questions from her chair.

"My daughter," Dean answers as he walks over to the window. He pulls back the curtains and looks in the street to see that except for the yellow volkswagen the street is empty. "You saw her?" Dean asks Hayla.

"Yeah right there." She points to the place where the woman was standing not a minute ago. She runs her hands up her arms feeling unusually cold despite her jacket. "I think she was a ghost.

Dean gives Sam a look and walks back over to sit on the couch. "Yeah. I'd say you're right," he says as he plops down. He runs a hand over his face and Hayla takes a seat next to him on the arm of the couch. Melanie stares at all three of them.

"Come on. Ghosts?" Melanie breaks the silence. None of their faces change. "You're serious."

"Yeah. See, there's, uh, fake whoo-whoo crap, and there's real whoo-whoo crap," Dean explains.

"Well, yeah, but... ghosts?" she says skeptically.

"Oh, trust me. There's a lot weirder out there than that." Hayla still feels the sick feeling subsiding and shutters at the thought of there being something worse than ghosts.

"So "The X-files" is real, or you just stopped talking like an FBI agent."

"Well, um... we're not FBI agents," Sam says trying to ease the woman into all of this.

Melanie takes in their faces for a moment and says, "I need a drink."

"I support that," Dean replies and both Sam and Hayla give him a bitch face.

The all walk out of Melanie's house and towards the car. "You know, if this is a spirit, it ain't your average spook tied to a house," Dean observers. "I mean, this thing is boogieing all over town."

"Not surprised." Sam points to some signs across the street that have something to do with physics. "I mean, how many crystal balls do you figure there are in Lily Dale?"

Dean takes this in for a second. "Somewhere between 50 and, uh, all of them."

"Well, I mean, quartz can act as an antenna for spirits, right? I mean, that's why mediums started using crystal balls in the first place."

"Well, that means that every storefront in town has got a ghost satellite dish."

"Exactly. And this place is packed with people summoning spirits."

"Please," Hayla scoffs. "Most of these guys can't even call a taxi."

"All it takes is one," Sam says

"That's gonna be like looking for a needle in a stack of fake needles," Dean says obviously annoyed.

"It's worse. I mean, I'll bet you anything some of these guys got real juice. I'm not talking kill-people level. I'm just saying, enough to make it complicated."

"I hate this town. Alright, so," Dean opens his car door and looks back at Sam, "what? Start hitting up the Miss Cleo's?

"I was thinking split up and canvass. It's faster," he says before walking away.

"Right. 'Course you were," Dean mutters to himself. He looks over at Hayla to see her staring across the street. He looks in that direction but sees nothing but a tree. "Hal?" he says concerned. She blinks and looks at him. "You okay?" she nods as she looks at the ground. "Did she hurt you?"

"No," she said sounding confused. "She just looked at me. Like she was examining me." Dean scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion. "It felt...weird." Just then Melanie burst through her front door and runs up to the car talking about her friend who had some vision.

They all quickly get in the car and sped over to Camille's. They walk up together and Melanie rings the doorbell. Camille answers and gives them a disbelieving look.

"It's okay," Melanie assures her. "Like I said on the phone, he can help."

"Phony lawman, huh?" she questions.

"Yeah, 'cause nobody can relate to phony around here," Dean snaps back taking in her ridiculous costume and decor.

"Who's she?" She points to Hayla.

"Ghost hunting intern," Hayla replies sarcastically.

Camille throws her hands up in surrender. "Well, if you can do something, I don't care if you call yourself the Pope."

"Alright. What happened, exactly?" Dean questions.

"What happened is, I had a friggin' vision. Something is coming for me," she says panicked.

"What's coming? Did you get a look?"

"No. But I sure felt it when it started breaking my bones." She looks up at them, her fear clear on her face. "I don't want to die."

"Okay. We'll figure it out," he assures her. "The vision happened in here?"

"Yeah, by the cash box." She points to the time on the desk. Dean walks over looking over everything. The he notices a camera in a mask on the wall.

"There any chance good-lookin' was watching?"

* * *

They all gather around the computer as they watch the footage from the surveillance tape. It shows Camille walking across the room with the cash box then the picture cuts out.

"What was that?" she asks. Dean rewinds and replays the footage. A ghost of a woman can be seen behind Camille. She gasps.

"What the hell?!" Melanie exclaims.

"Oh, my God," she says freaked out. The ghost on the video footage walks up behind her and puts her hands on her head. "Oh, my God!" she says even more freaked.

"W-was that, I mean, an actual-" Melanie stutters.

"Bona fide," Dean confirms.

"Dean," Hayla whispers to him. "It's her. The woman from the street"

"Yeah. Well, no offense, but nobody's having psychic visions around here. This, uh, spirit, whoever she is, is giving them out.

"And then killing people?" she asks tentatively.

"Until we stop her. Well, the good news is you said you saw a clock and it read 2 a.m., so that gives us a little time. Now, does anybody recognize this chick?"

"You know, I swear I've seen her," Melanie says staring at the screen, "like in a painting or something."

"A painting?" he questions. "Like, a-"

"No," she cuts him off. "Not a painting. In one of those old photos in the museum.

Dean and Hayla get in the car and give Sam a call to meet them at the museum to follow this lead.

* * *

"Lily Dale has long been a haven for the psychically gifted," the museum guide says as he leads the group through the halls. "Tortured elsewhere, they're embraced here. My own family has a modest natural gift. We also celebrate our long and colorful history of... embellishers." People in the group laugh. The museum guide gestures towards a display. "Ectoplasm illusion, circa 1890." Sam rolls his eyes and walks out of the room with Dean and Hayla behind him. "Walking, walking," he says ushering the crowd along.

The three walk into a hall that was advertised as "Sibling Acts". Sam and Dean walk along the wall with many photographs. They meet in the middle where there is a picture of "The Mystifying Campbell Brothers". Sam sighs.

"Never ended well for the siblings," the museum guide says to the pair.

"Why is that?" Dean questions.

"Mm, the strain of working together, or maybe just being around each other all their lives. Those two were the exception, actually." He points to the picture. "The Campbells got along famously. Of course, that was just a stage name. They weren't actually brothers. That was a cover for their, um... alternative lifestyle." They all nod in understanding. "Any other questions I can answer?"

"Yes. Who are they?" Sam points to a picture of two sisters one of which Hayla recognizes.

"Oh, the Fox sisters - among the founders of Lily Dale. Kate Fox," he said pointing to the woman from the surveillance video, "quite troubled, apparently, but mesmerizing onstage. She's said to be able to levitate objects and foretell one's death."

"That's her," Dean whispers to Sam

'Her older sister, Margaret...perhaps not a natural psychic."

"So, full of crap," Hayla said bluntly.

"Yes, well... she didn't have her sister's charisma, but she looked after Kate. Sometimes, one's true gift is taking care of others."

"So, what happened to them?" Dean questions.

"Lived here all their lives."

"Lived here and died here?" Sam adds.

"Yes, well... buried in the cemetery."

"Great. That was very educational," Sam says with no sincerity in his voice. "Thank you. Dean," he calls to his brother as he walks away.

Dean and Hayla go to follow him but the guide grabs Dean's arm. "I'm sorry, I don't normally do this during business hours, but do you know an Eleanor... or an Ellen?" Dean tries to give a chuckle but hayla can see on his face that the man had hit a nerve. "She seems quite concerned about you. She wants to tell you, pardon me, if you don't tell someone how bad it really is, she'll kick your ass from beyond. You have to trust someone again eventually." He let go of Dean's arm and gave a small smile. "Anyway, don't forget to visit the gift shop." Hayla follows Deab out of the museum and down the steps to where Sam is waiting for them.

"Alright. Hit up the graveyard, dig up Kate?" He asks walking towards the car.

"Alright. Wait a second," Dean stops him."

"All signs point to her, Dean," he brushes him off.

"No. Just hold on a damn minute." Both Hayla and Sam stop in their tracks at his words. Sam turns and faces Dean while Hayla watches them both at a distance. "Enough with just the facts."

"We agreed-" Sam starts but Dean cuts him off.

"No, we agreed to work the case. We didn't agree for you to be a dick the whole time."

Sam's mouth hangs open. "What?"

"You're pissed, okay? And you've got a right."

"Yeah, damn straight," he argues back.

"But enough's enough."

"Says who?" he asks playing the part of the pissy little brother remarkably well. "Look, I'll work this damn case, but you lied to me, and you killed my friend," he spat and started to walk away. Hayla was starting to understand the 'falling out' that Dean had talked about.

"No, I put down a monster who killed four people," Dean spat back, "and if you didn't know her, you'd have done the same thing,"

"I _did_ know her, Dean."

"Yeah, which is why you couldn't do it," he calls after him. "Look, I get it. There are certain people in this world, no matter how dangerous they are, you just can't."

"Don't pull that card! That's bull. Look, if I've learned one thing, it's that if something feels wrong, it probably is!" Sam shouts.

"Usually, yeah. But killing Amy was not wrong," Dean says matching Sam's anger. "You couldn't do it, so I did. That's what family does, the dirty work. And I woulda told you, eventually, once I knew that this whole waving a gun at Satan thing was a one-time show. I think it's reasonable to want to know that you're off the friggin' high dive, Sam. You almost got us both killed, so you can be pissed all you want, but quit being a bitch."

Dean walks past Sam and gets in the car leaving Sam and Hayla watching after him. Hayla walks up to Sam and places a hand on his shoulder. Sam gives her a tired grin and taps her hand before silently walking over to the car as well. Hayla sighs and follows him.

* * *

Night fell and it was just about time for the men to head out to the graveyard. "You staying here?" Dean asked Hayla who was sitting on her bed. He figured she was going to do what she wanted anyway, so asking her was the only way he was going to know what was going on.

"No I'd rather go with you. This whole seeing ghosts thing is giving the creeps." Dean nods understandingly. "Plus I like seeing you work." He scrunches his eyebrows together in confusion. "There's an intensity about it. A passion. You don't often get to see someone do the thing they love," she says with a smirk. "With the people they love," she adds. "No matter how crazy it maybe." He laughs at this. "Dean what did you mean when you said Sam was 'waving a gun at Satan'?" Dean's smile goes away and he looks to the ground. "You don't mean Satan like, the real Satan...right." Dean looks up concern written on his face. He opens his mouth to answer but is cut off by a knock at the door.

"We'll talk later," he assures her. She nods and Dean turns to open the door. Sam Stand on the other side with a shovel in hand.

"Time to go."

* * *

Dean holds the flashlight while Sam stands in the grave digging. Hayla sits on the gravestone keeping look out. It' makes her feel uncomfortable with how comfortable she is with the whole situation. "I get why she's killing people," Sam says hauling another shovel of dirt out. "I don't get why she's warning them."

"Give them a taste of the curse, maybe? It couldn't have been a joyride," Dean suggests. "What I don't get is why she reached out to Hayla." He scratched the back of his head in thought. "Twice now she's seen the ghost and it didn't try to hurt her, it didn't give her any visions, Hayla doesn't even fit the M.O." Sam finishes digging and throws the shovel out. "I don't know it's all very weird." He gives Sam a hand up out of the grave.

"Here we go," Sam says.

"Hal, be careful. This ghost might not be too happy that we're trying to waist her," Dean warns. Hayla hops off the stone and takes a few steps back from the grave. She watches as Dean pours lighter fluid and Sam pours salt onto the bones in the coffin. Just then the woman materializes and rushes at Sam, sending him sprawling.

"Sam!" Hayla gasps. She rushes towards him and the woman looks at Hayla. When she tries to take a step towards the girl Dean holds out a lighter.

"Back off, crazy eyes," he threatens.

"Listen to me. Why isn't anybody listening?" she pleads. Dean holds out his lighter and flicks it, but it doesn't catch. "No!" she screams.

"You don't get a vote." He flicks his lighter again but it doesn't pushes Hayla behind him and pulls some matches out of his pocket.

"No! Stop!" she screams again. Sam strikes the match and i lights. He flings it into the grave just as she charges at Dean. "No!" Just as she reaches Dean she bursts into flames. Hayla shields her eyes from the heat and when she looks back the woman had disappeared.

"Nice timing," Dean breaths out. He flicks his lighter closed and shoves it in his pocket. He walks over and Helps Sam and Hayla up. "You okay?" he asks checking her over.

"Yes I'm fine." She smiles.

"Come on lets get out of here." He wraps his arm around her shoulders as they walk back to the car.

* * *

Back at the car Dean called Melanie and gave her the all clear with satisfaction on his face. Just another job well done. They were almost to the hotel when Melanie called again. "Melanie?" he answered. Hayla and Dean perked up. "What's going on?" They could hear her panic on the other end. "Wait, what do you mean it's-" It was clear that whatever they did didn't solve the problem. "Alright. Listen to me. Calm down," he instructed.

"Dean, just give me the phone and drive." Sam snatched the phone away and presses it to his ear. "Melanie? Hey. Get to the kitchen," he tells her. "Alright, just go. Get salt." Dean turns the car around and speeds down the road back towards Camille's Hayla can hear screaming on the other end other line "Find iron. Is there a fireplace? Melanie!" he screams but it's clear that the line is dropped and by the time they reach Camilles' its too late. When they pull up to the house Melanie is walking the front step with tears in her eyes. Dean rushes forward and Melanie throws herself into his arms sobbing.

They take Melanie back to her place and the sit in the living room as she takes a shower. "Should have known that whole "good sis, bad sis" story was just showmanship crap." Dean bites. "Oh, and it turns out that Kate was just trying to warn people about her evil bitch sister. And we burned her bones, so that's gone." Hayla sat on the couch with her head in her hands. She needed to rest. It was morning now and she hasn't slept in over twenty four hours. But just knowing there was another ghost out there was making her feel uneasy. So she wouldn't sleep until it was taken care of.

"Dean," Sam says trying to calm him down.

"What?" he snaps.

"All we can do now is go stop her."

"That's not good enough, by a mile."

"I know. Believe me. But-" Then Melanie walks down the stairs in her robe. "Can we talk about this later?" he whispers. Hayla stands up as Melanie walk over, still crying.

"Hey. How you holding up?" Dean asks her.

"Been better." She wipes away a tear.

"Listen, if you need for us to leave-"

"I need you guys to leave," she confirms.

"Okay, we will. It's just that... Look - Margaret is still out there," Sam reminds her.

Melanie covers her face with another sob and takes a deep breath. "What do you guys need to know?"

"Is there anything that stood out?" he questions.

She raises her eyebrows and gives a humorless laugh. "Well, um... she barely gave a crap about me. I mean, I was just in the way. She was all about getting Camille."

"Okay. That's something," Dean confirms.

"One other thing. Um... she enjoyed it. She was smiling." This sent chills down Hayla's spine. Sam and Dean exchanged looks and thanked Melanie.

* * *

After they left the house they all headed back to the grave year to find Margret. Once again Hayla sat on the stone at the head of the grav and kept a look out while the boys took turns digging. "I feel naked doing this in daylight," Dean says shoveling out some more dirt.

"Yeah. Let's just hurry up," Sam rushes him.

A few minutes later Sam is finishing off the grave and they can see the coffin. Sam raises the shovel and slams the coffin open. "Alright, Mags. My lighter's juiced this time," Dean says flicking his lighter open. Sam pulls out the wood planks and finds that the coffin is completely empty.

"Come on let's go." Dean helps Sam out of the grave and the gather their stuff to head back to the car. "Geraldo'd," Dean gruffs.

"Not good," Sam says.

"Never good," He agrees."

"Dean, if someone knew enough to take Margaret's bones, they're not kidding around. That's serious binding magic."

"Great," He mumbles." They throw their stuff in the trunk of the car and Hayla and Sam lean against it. "Psychic ghost bitch on a leash."

"We got to find those bones."

"So we got to find the bonehead," Dean jokes. He empties his pockets and pulls a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and tosses it into the trunk.

"So, what? We call Bobby, see what it take to harness the power of a ghost?" Sam suggests.

"Yeah." Dean cocks his head at the flyer and picks it back up. It is a flyer for the Annual Lily Dale Psychic Festival. "Hey, Sam, you know why I'm not going to spend my money at the annual Lily Dale E.S.P. Festival and hot-dog-eating contest this year?"

"Can't imagine," he says not really paying attention.

Dean holds the flyer out for Sam to see. The featured acts were to be Imelda Graven, Grandma Goldy and Nikolai Lishin. "Because all the headliners are dead." This catches Sam's attention and suddenly they are on a whole other lead. "Call Bobby and find out what kind of binding magic this is. Hayla come with me. We're going to go to Melanie's, find out who the ghost may target next," Dean orders as him and Hayla hop back into the car and drive away from Sam.

* * *

They reached Melanies and explained the new theory to her as she looked over the flyer. "You know, after Nikolai. They asked Camille to take his spot. I mean, she's so popular. Was so popular."

"Okay, uh, all these people - would you say that they're the, uh, you know, top dogs in town?" Dean asks.

"Well, it's not really like that."

"But they were all doing well. I mean, your grandma?" Hayla cuts in.

"She wrote a few books. Yeah, and Imelda was on "The Nate Berkus Show" twice, so, yeah, I guess they were doing pretty well. You think that's why she went after them?"

"I mean, if you had to guess, who do you think would be next in line?" Dean asks again.

"I mean, I don't know."

"Well, your grandma was headlining at the big hall, so who do you think they would ask to fill in for her?"

Melanie shrugs. "Probably…" realization hits her and she goes pale, "Me."

"Hayla grab the salt cantine from my bag and draw a circle," he instructs and Hayla got to work. Dean pulled out a shotgun from his bag and started to load it while Hayla finished up.

"There," she said as the circle was completed.

"Nice," Dean complimented her.

"You sure that'll work?" Melanie said sceptically.

"That should hold her off long enough for Sam to find the bones and burn them. Hopefully."

"Hopefully?" she says sounding faithless in this plan. "Does it hurt 'em? Burning their bones?"

Dean thinks for a moments. "I never really thought about it. Probably, yeah." He nods.

"Good." She says with confidence and Dean smiles. His phone ring and Hayla knows Sam's probably got the trail on the bones.

"Sam, tell me you got this," Dean pleads. Hayla hands Melanie an iron poker from the fire place and picks up one of her own. "How do you know?" She could hear Sam's unhappy voice on the other end. "Alright, well, figure out where he put her bones." Melanie looks out the window and gasps as she see Margaret. "Fast Sam." He hangs up the phone. He grabs his shotgun but when he turns back around she's gone.

"Is she gone?" Melanie looks around.

"I doubt it," he replies still on guard. He pushes Hayla behind him away from the window.

"But she can't get past the line, right?" Hayla asks,

"Right." A second later the window glass bursts inwards and wind howls in. "Damn it," he curses as the wind blows a gap in the ring. "I hate when they do that. Get the salt," he orders. "Go." Melanie digs in his bag for the salt. Margaret appears right in front of Hayla.

"Dean!" she panics. Dean whips around and Margaret sends him flying across the room, the wind being knocked out of him. Melanie holds the poker out in front of her and backs away. A shot sounds and Margaret disappears. Hayla sees Dean back on his feet as he cocks his gun and she breathes out a sigh.

"Come on Hal." He pushes her towards the kitchen and Melanie grabs salt out of a cabinet and starts lining the door. Suddenly the ghost appears again. "Get behind me," he shouts at the girls. He raises his gun at her. "This is as far as you go bitch." She smiles menacingly at him and the lights start to flicker and the floor shakes before it cracks and the line of salt is once again broken.

"Aww," she fake pouts. "Sorry handsome." He shoots her again and she disappears once more. No more than a few seconds later she appears again. Dean cocks his gun to shoot her again but he's out of bullets. He throws the gun on the counter and pulls and iron chair from his bag and swings it at her. She comes back quickly and pushes Dean into the living room. He tries to get up but she kicks him and he passes out.

"Dean!" Hayla screams. She makes her way over to him but she turns around and flings Hayla against the wall.

"Too bad," she says to Melanie. She rushes forward and wraps her hands around Melanies neck, choking the life out of her. Then all of a sudden she backs off and before Hayla knows it the ghost bursts into flames with a scream. Sure it's over now Hayla collapses against the wall exhausted.

* * *

They all get the well deserved rest they needed and the next morning they meet at Good Graces for breakfast. "In the bed? They were _in_ the bed?" Sam and Dean just got done telling the events from last night like they were trading war stories. Hayla watched in amusement as Dean cringes.

"Yeah," Sam says taking a sip from his coffee.

"Ugh. I can't believe he was _boning_ her," Dean says in disgust.

"Dean," Sam groans at his brother's joke. Hayla smiles and rolls her neck. It's still sore from last night.

"You okay?" Dean checks on her.

"I thought I was done being thrown around by ghosts," she jokes but can still see concern in his eyes. "I'll be fine," she assures him.

Their waiter comes over to their table with that stupid smile of his. "Can I get you anything else?"

"Uh, just a refill. And if you affirmate me, I'm gonna punch you in the face."

Both Sam and Hayla look away trying to contain their laughter. "Alrighty then," he says with another smile. "Coffee, coming up."

"I can't wait to get out of this frickin' fortune cookie," Dean groans.

Sam sees Melanie enter the diner and nods towards her. "Dean." Dean waves his hand to catch her attention and she starts to walk over. "I'm gonna go, um... do something outside," Sam says not so subtly.

"I'm going to go help him," Hayla says with a smirk.

Hayla walked outside and saw Sam at his car that was parked right behind her's. He was leaning against his car so she went to stand next to him.

"You did good the past few days Hayla," he says looking back at the diner. She smiles at the ground. "You really stuck in there. You'd make a hell of hunter."

She laughs. "I don't know about that."

Sam smiles at her. "Don't be modest. It's in your blood." He shoves her slightly and she laughs again.

"Yeah that's all still kinda new to me." Sam gives her a questioning look. "You know Sam growing up I didn't really have a family, or a home, or anything really." Sam's eyes glimmer with sympathy for the girl. "But now I have Dean, and Jodi, and Bobby," she grins at the tall man. "I've never had an uncle but as far as they go, I think I could do a lot worse than you."

Sam smiles and pulls the girl into a hug. Even with her boots on Sam towered over her. She buried her face in his chest and sighed. When he pulled back she gave him a sad smile and he walked away to the back of his car and opened his trunk. Hayla was sure he was going to leave again, but then he looked up and smiled.

"Well, are you going to help me with my bags?" Hayla smiled and ran over taking one of Sam's bags and throwing it in her trunk. Just as they load everything of his in Dean comes walking out of the restaurant.

"Hey," he greets them.

Hayla beams his way and Sam greets him back, "Hey."

"That's your stuff." He points to the trunk where the new bags are added.

"Yeah. Yeah. I figured we'd take one car," he says casually.

"Works for me. You still want to break my face?" he asks not completely joking.

Sam smiles anyway. "No. Uh, not at this moment. Look, you know what? Um... You were right. About Amy. If she was... just any monster, I'm not sure I could have let her walk away. I don't know. I mean, I'll never know."

"So, what are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is... I get why you did it. You were just trying to make sure no one else got hurt. But here's the thing. You can't just look me in the face and tell me you're fine. I mean, you're not sleeping, you drink for the record -"

"Oh, here we go," he groans.

"Look, whatever. Last one to preach, I know. But... Just be honest with me. How are those the actions of someone who knows they did the right thing?

"You want me to be honest?"

"Yeah."

"I went with my gut. And that felt right. I didn't trust her, Sam. Of course, ever since Cas, I'm having a hard time trusting anybody." Hayla hears his voice go between a crach and chuckle as he tries to laugh off whatever it is that Cas did, and she makes a mental note to try not to bring up the touchy subject. "And as far as how I been acting... I don't know. Maybe it's 'cause I don't like lying to you. You know, it doesn't feel right. So, yeah, you got me there. I been climbing the walls."

"I know how that is," Sam nods. "But, hey... If I learned one thing from that museum, sibling acts are tough." Hayla smirks at this.

"Oh," Dean scoffs. "Don't compare us to that hall of crazy."

Dean and Sam walk around to their designated sides and Hayla goes to the back.

"We're like poster kids of functional family life compared to them."

"It's a low bar," Hayla laughs.

"Well, hey... grading on a curve has got me past everything since kindergarten, so don't knock it."

"Whatever you say," Sam puts his hands up in surrender. They all get into the car and Sam gives a sigh. I still want to know how that guy bent my spoon."

"Forget it, Sam. It's Lily Dale." All three of them smirk and Dean start the car and drives away.

**Authors note: Sorry it took so long to get this up. I was on vacation and when I left the chapter wasn't ready. But I just got back and this was the first thing I did. These chapters are getting longer than I expected and if you guy want me to break them into parts let me know. So please follow, favorite, and please please please review. I love reviews. I read all of them and I'd like to give a special shout out to pryde23 and zexydemyx66 for reviewing and critiquing on a regular basis. I really appreciate it. I hope you like the chapter. I can't wait to start writing for Sam and Hayla I think they have the potential to be super cute and funny. Thanks for reading :-)**


	6. Cabin In The Woods

It had been another week on the road. Sam and Dean were still on rocky waters but Sam and Hayla were getting along famously. Dean had swore he had never seen Sam smile for such a long period of time in his entire life. There was just something about that gorl that inspired that in people he guessed. Her and Sam spent most of the hours in the day together. They would talk and laugh and Sam would help Hayla with her school work and for a couple of days things seemed relatively normal. Well, normal for everyone except Dean. Dean was still his chip on the shoulder self and he had often heard Hayla ask Sam what his 'problem' was. Which of course Sam answered with yet another story from their past of what could be eating away at Dean this time.

They had just reached the outskirts of Kentucky and were packed away for the night. Dean sat in the dark. He couldn't sleep so he does what he usually does. He sits in the corner and watches over Sammy. This time however it's not his little brother that has his undivided attention. It's the little girl in the other bed. Hayla's curly blonde hair is sprawled out across the pillows and even in her sleep she has Jane's locket around her neck. The bracelet that Dean had given her can be seen poking out from her hand tucked gently under her head. Dean was grateful for this because there was still something itching him about their last case.

Hayla had seen the ghost...twice, and it didn't even try to harm her. It wasn't even after her. Then the case before that she happened upon another ghost? He didn't think there was anything particularly wrong with it, it just made him feel uneasy. He decided to give Bobby a call, just to be one hundred percent sure nothing weird was going on.

"I don't know how to describe it Bobby! I guess you could say they're...drawn to her." he says trying to find the right words.

"Don't get snippy with me boy. You're the one that called me at six in the morning," Bobby snaps back at him.

"Well have you heard of anything like it?" He's hiding in the bathroom away from Hayla and Sam's ear shot.

"Of course I have." He could hear Bobby flipping through one of his big old books.

"What's the theory?" Dean scratches the back of his head looking into the mirror. He looks like crap but that could have something to do with him not having slept in a few days.

"Well," Bobby sighs, "it could just be Hayla. That girl has had a pretty messed up time growing up. Maybe even more than you or me. I mean sure we got bat around by the universe a good amount of times, but we've always pulled ourselves from the fire, we've always had something to fight for. Until she found you, she had nothing. There is a lot of darkness there, Dean. Ghost, demons, monsters, they eat that kind of stuff up like it's candy."

"Are you kidding me. That girl smiles more than a clown."

"Yeah cause faking a smile is a new concept to this family," Bobby grumbles.

Dean sighs. "So you're just saying it's her past that's got the ghosts so hyped up? That's all you got for me?"

"Well that's the only natural thing, but there are a lot more theories that are...not so natural," Bobby says trying to find the best way to word things without making Dean upset.

"Wait are you saying…" Dean absorbs the information for a moment and anger boils in him. How could Bobby even go there. "There is nothing supernatural about my daughter, Bobby!" he growls through the phone.

"I'm sorry Dean. It was just a suggestion."

"Yeah, well keep your heinous 'suggestions' to yourself!" Dean sighs and Bobby stays quiet on the other end. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired," he apologizes for snapping.

"Dean I know it hard to hear. I know you want everything to be fine but if you think that something is up, we have to look at this, like we look at everything else. We consider all possibilities and start crossing them off the list."

"What? You're saying just send her up with you for a couple of weeks?" He heard Bobby sigh through the phone. Dean leaned over the counter and chewed on this " I don't know let me think about it." Dean hung up the phone quickly and exited the bathroom in a huff. He found both Hayla and Sam sitting at the end of their beds. They both had obviously heard his conversation.

"What was that all about?" Sam asked.

Dean looks down at his phone with a gives a short laugh. "Does it have anything to do with me?" Hayla asks. Dean looks at her and could see the guilt on her face for thinking she had caused any friction between Dean and his surrogate father.

Dean gives her a sympathetic look. "We'll talk about it later," he brushes the questions off. Hayla rolls her eyes and scoffs.

"Yeah, sure. 'Later'," she bites. She hops from her bed and glares as she passes Dean to the bathroom. He turns to stop her but she slams the door shut. He closes his mouth as he hears the water to the shower.

Dean runs a hand over his face and looks to Sam. "You look exhausted," he says pointing out the obvious. "Why don't you get some sleep. I'll look out for her. Make sure she gets something to eat. Just rest."

Dean nods. "Yeah you're right. I just need to sleep." Dean walks over to Sam's offered bed. "Thanks Sammy." He pats his younger brothers shoulder and collapses on the bed and within minutes falls asleep.

Hayla gets out out of the shower dressed in some ripped jeans and a white tank top. When she steps back into the room she's glad to see that Dean is asleep. "Shower's open," she tells Sam who is typing away on his computer.

"Alright. I'll get a quick shower and then I'll go out to get us some breakfast." Hayla nods as Sam walks into the bathroom. Hayla sits with a sigh at the end of her bed and looks over to Dean. 'Later.' That was all Hayla had heard from him every time she asked him a question. She asked about Sam 'seeing Satan'. She asked about the dirty trench coat that held a permanent residence in the back of her car. Now she's pretty sure he's sending her back to North Dakota and she always gets the same answer. "We'll talk about it later," she grumbles to herself and scoffs. "Yeah right." Hayla gets up and kneels down to her bags by the door. She pulls out a loose fitting sweater and pulls it over her head. When she stands back us she knocks the table and Dean's bag falls over, and the car keys fall out. Hayla stares at the keys for a moment. She looks back at Dean to see him still sound asleep. She can still hear Sam in the shower. She grabs her book bag and leaves behind her duffle cause she's sure Sam and Dean won't be far behind her. She grabs the keys, silently slips out the door, and drives away.

* * *

Sam finishes with his shower and walks out of the steam filled bathroom. Drying his hair with a towel he looks around the room and finds no sign of the blonde girl. "Hayla?" He looks by the door where their bags are and notices her backpack is gone. He rushes to the door and opens it to see that the car, that was parked right outside their door, is now gone. Sam bounds to his brother and shakes him. "Dean wake up. Hayla took the car she's gone." Dean's eye open in panic and he hops out of bed.

Sam is rushing around the room gathering all of their stuff. "She couldn't have gotten far," Dean says as he picks up Hayla's duffle. "She left her bag behind," he observes puzzled. "But she took her backpack. Why would she do that? that thing will last her a day."

Realization hits Sam. "She knew that when we came after her it wouldn't take us long to find her. Which means we know where she's going. We just don't know we know."

"How are we supposed to figure out that Riddler?" Dean shouts.

"I don't know Dean! Is there any place that she mentioned to you? Any place that means something to her?"

Dean shrugs at a loss. Then he looks back up at his brother and Sam can practically see the light bulb go off in his head. "What?"

"The cabin," he says quietly.

"What cabin?"

"When Hayla was born, Jane bought a cabin in Tennessee. Hayla said shes been there a couple times in past years."

"Well do you know where it is?"

"Yeah," Dean says gathering his stuff quickly now. "Let's go."

* * *

They rush out the door and quickly steal a car right there in the parking lot of their hotel. They are driving down the highway and Sam is speeding towards Tennessee. "She usually pull these kind of stunt?" he questions his brother in the passenger seat.

"Nothing like this. I don't know what's gotten into her." Dean rests his head in his palm. "Damn it!" He pounds against the dash. "That girl is so god damned stubborn," he grits.

"Hey, we'll find her," Sam tries to comfort him. He hesitates before he says anything else. "Though we wouldn't have to find her if you would just tell her the truth.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean snaps at his younger brother. "I tell her the truth!"

"Yeah, but you don't tell her everything. You can't selectively choose what she deserves to know about. She's a strong girl and she can handle the truth about my time in hell, your time in hell, what Cas did." Dean glares at him and Sam returns it. "She knows you're holding back on her." Dean runs his hand across his face. "I know you're scared, but I also know that you've wanted a family for a long time. So if holding back is what's preventing you from doing so, why do you keep doing it?

"I'm holding back because...what the hell am I supposed to do with a kid? I can barely take care of myself let alone a teenage girl. Our dad screwed up enough times with us, and his dad before him, hell even Bobby's dad. You know what if this just turns out to be just another one of those times? Ben was different. Even though I loved him like he was mine I knew he would never be. I was around but I still wasn't all there, I nearly always had Lisa's help. If something happens to Hayla it on me." Sam was starting to get his brothers hesitation. Every Time someone tried to be a father in this family it never ended well. What if it did with Hayla?

Sam and Dean rode the rest of the car ride in silence soaking in the confession. The only other sound coming from the slight buzz of the radio.

.

* * *

When the brothers reached the cabin the door was cracked open. They drew their guns and carefully walk in. "Hal?" Dean calls into the house.

"Up here," she calls back down to him. Sam gives him a nod to go check it out and continues to scout the place downstairs. Dean walks up stairs quietly gun pointed. He gets to the top and sees the door slightly cracked open. He points his gun forward and slowly pushes the door open to find Hayla sitting on a bed with a picture frame. "You know, you were right," she says looking down at the picture. Dean sighs in relief and lowers his gun, tucking it back in the waist of his jeans. "I do have mom's smile." Hayla flashed the photo to him of Jane smiling in front of the cabin. She sits the frame back on the side table. She hops off the bed and walks over to bay window overlooking some of the smoky mountains. Dean picks up the frame from the table and looked over Jane's flawless features. Dean could see himself in his daughter, but to him she would always be just like her mother. He sits the picture back down hesitantly and for a moment seriously considers stealing it.

"Come on. We're leaving," He demands.

"And if I say no?" There is was again. Just another example of how Hayla reminds him of Jane everyday. She was so stubborn. She knew exactly how to get a reaction at of him and that's exactly what she had planned to do.

"Do you realize how dangerous this is?" he asks the back of her head. Dean's blood boils and he could feel the anger building up inside him. "Running off like that and putting yourself at risk. It's pretty god damn stupid. There are things out there that are going to want to kill you because of me and they will not hesitate because you're a child! I have been worried sick!"

Hayla turns back around to him and he can see anger written on her face as well. "Well then I guess we're both disappointed in each other then!" Dean was taken back for a moment. What had he done? "You know I knew from the moment you stepped through Bobby's door that part of you was never going to be ready for any of this. But still I hoped and I prayed and pushed myself upon you with that trip to Oklahoma, and here we are. Three weeks later and now you're fishing for an excuse to dump me off with some lame ass hunch about me being some supernatural magnet? Why don't you just admit you wanted to get rid of me since the beginning."

"That's not what this is," he defends himself.

"Then what is it?"

Dean pauses for a moment trying to get her to calm down. He carefully says, "Bobby knows this kind of lore better than anyone-"

"Oh, screw that!" She cuts him off. "Don't try to pull that bull shit with me. What are you afraid of?" she demands from him.

"If you get hurt, it's going to be my fault!" He confesses. "You'll be a lot safer with Bobby than you'll ever be with me."

"I can take care of myself!"

"We have had two close calls already, Hal! You were in the hospital for God's sake!"

"But I'm fine!"

"Yeah, and now you're gonna be even better with Bobby!" they stare at each other in silence for a few moments waiting for the other to say something. Dean then turns and rubs his hand over his face. He is positive Sam can hear all of this from down stairs.

"I'm not them, you know," she says breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Sam told me about Lisa and Ben. I-"

"Hayla," he grits through his teeth, "you treading on some very thin ice."

"I'm sorry. I know that you loved them like family. I know how hard it must have been to walk away like that. But you are not the only one who has lost people here!"

"You can even begin to understand what loss is."

Hayla looks shocked at his assumption. "Everyone, I have ever cared about had either left me or died!"

"Join the club!" She glares at him and he feels heavy under her gaze.

"You know I pegged you as naive. but didn't think you'd be that stupid," she spits the words at him as she walks out of the room

"Excuse me?" he shouts after and follows her out of the room.

She stops in front of the balcony overlooking the living room below. She whips back to face him anger clear on him face"You say that everyone has left you? Well I'm still here. And I have been trying like hell to reach out to you only to have you turn away. So don't try to act like you're the victim in all of this because you walked out on mom and now you're trying to do the same to me!"

"I didn't walk out on Jane. I didn't have a choice!" he spits back at her.

"Why? Because you were too scared to stand up to your father? Well guess what that cycle ends now, I'm ending it. The only good thing that came out of it was mom escaped this swirling vortex of insanity you try to pass off as family! Cause I have got to tell you, I am sick of it!" She waves her arms at him.

"Then why don't you just leave? What is it you want from me?"

"Ahhh!" she screams and walks away down the hall.

"Get back here! Tell me what you want!"

She turns to him with tears in her eyes. "My mom!" she screams back before walking into another room and slamming the door behind her. Dean's face fell with a heavy sigh. He felt awful. He leaned over balcony running his hands over his face. When he looked down into the living room he saw Sammy looking back at him sympathetically. He had obviously heard the whole fight. Dean didn't give him any sign to assure him he was fine because he was sure his little brother knew he wasn't. He just turned and walked back into to the bedroom.

* * *

It was easy for Dean to imagine Jane in this house. Sleeping, cooking meals, watching the tv, and dancing just about ever as she so often did. She would dance in the kitchen or in the bedroom. Even if there was no music she would hum softly to herself. She did that often as well. While she was cooking or working on a car. It was these little things that he missed the most about jane because it was these little things that he saw in Hayla everyday. Dean was pretty sure she didn't even know she did them.

Like when she would slightly bob her head along to a song on the radio or her iPod. She'd hum in the morning when she brushed her teeth or when she sat in the hotel rooms doing school work and just like her mom i never seemed to be any song, just something she would make up.

Dean knew how much he missed Jane. He had loved her. He missed her everyday, but it never had occurred to him that Hayla might be missing her mom as well. It never occurred to him that he wasn't just a dad. As a single dad he had to make up for both parts of parenthood, and to say the least he had done a piss poor job of it. Hell he was doing a piss poor job of being a parent period.

He thought about all of this as he and Sam had sat quietly in the living room. It had been nearly an hour since Hayla had stormed off after their fight. At first when he had come down stairs and sat on the couch next to Sam his brother had asked if he wanted to talk about it, to which he deadpanned a quiet, "No." Then he asked if Dean hadn't wanted him to leave and again he replied with a small, "No." So they sat in silence with the television off and the only sound heard was their steady breathing and slight ruffling if one of them shifted.

"Dean?" They had heard a small voice say from the stairs. They hadn't heard Hayla come out of the room so they both jumped a little at her sudden appearance. "Come here, I want to show you something." She nods up the stairs and walks back up them towards the door she had gone into earlier. Dean gives a look to Sam who gives him an encouraging nod. Dean makes his way up the stairs and across the balcony, Sam's eyes following him the entire way. When he stepped into the room he was overcome with the sight. Three of the walls were painted in a very light purple except for the wall where the door hung that had wooden paneling like the rest of the house. On the far wall white birds were painted that matched the one hanging from the mobile over the white crib. net to the crib by a window was a while rocking chair with a small bear place neatly on it. Hayla picks up the stuffed animal and hugs it close her chest, "This was my nursery," she explains. "Before my mom gave me up we lived here for about a year." She takes a seat in the rocking chair and looks around as if absorbing it all. "Bizzare. Isn't it?"

"Yeah," he breathes out quietly looking around as well.

"You know when I found this place, it was a bit of a miracle. I was homeless and I had been searching for it for days after I had found photo in my file from foster care. Then one night it was raining, not that that's rare in the smokey mountains but, this storm was different it was wild and being up here didn't help but like it was calling to me it was just there. The key was under the mat like it had been waiting there for me. And I knew that for at least one night I would be safe from the storm. Finding you was kind of the same thing." Dean turns his head to her at this. "I didn't think I'd ever find you, and the timing might have been really bad, but against everything I found you. So yeah we've not had it as easy as we would like, and being with comes with some risks. Don't get me wrong I can hold my own, but now I've been exposed to this world that I'm not ready to take on by myself strong or not. So don't tell me I'd be safer with someone else when the truth is I would just be more terrified than I already am." Dean gives a sympathetic look. He's finally starting to understand his daughter. and the more he understands the more he wants to know. He wants to know her like he knows Sam. He knows that kid like the back of his hand, he knows every move he's about to make before he makes it. When he thinks about Hayla all he can remember is a bunch of useless facts that she listed off or tried to cram in his brain.

He doesn't know his daughter truly. He doesn't know why she makes half the decisions she makes, like why she decided to become a vegetarian. If it had been Sam he would have stopped him this morning before he had even got a foot out the door.

Hayla looks down into her lap. "Hi, Sam," she greets. Dean looks to the side to see his younger brother standing in the doorway. Sam gives him a questioning look and Dean assures him he's okay with a nod. Sam steps through the threshold and starts looking around the room as they sit in the quiet, Dean sighs heavily leans against the wood paneling of the wall behind him. His back thumps against the wood and he notices a hollow sound. He looks back at it curiously giving it a knock to hear the hollow sound again.

"What is it?" Hayla asks watching him.

"There's something on the other side of this wall." He pushes one of the planks and it comes loose. "Sam help me with this." Sam rushes towards his brother and helps him move a couple planks out of the way. Hayla stands to move behind them. once they remove the planks all the can see is black. Sam feels inside the makeshift doorway and fins a switch. Lights flicker on and reveals an entire room full of weapons. .45's with silver bullets, sawed offs and salt rounds, machetes, iron. They step in the room gawking at the machinery mounted to the wall.

"What is this place?" Hayla asks looking at shelves packed with leather bound books and countless herbs.

"Well if I have to guess," Sam says holding an expertly packed salt round, "I'd say it a hunters lair."

"My mom was a hunter?" she says in disbelief.

"No," Dean snaps. "Janey wasn't a hunter. I knew her better than anyone."

"Yeah, Dean. That might have been the problem. You know what happens to the people who get close to us. Obviously you didn't take our problems with us when we left." They all continue to look through the room. Dean picks one of the sawed off from the wall and inspects the weaponry. Hayla pulls out one of the leather bound books from the shelf and flips through it realizing it was a huge book of spells. Sam is looking at the back wall which was filled with curse boxes except for a small tin box on the top shelf. He pulls it down and pops it open to reveal a bunch of old pictures and papers. He pulls out an envelope and scrunches his eyebrows together. "Hayla?" she looks up from the book biting at her thumb nail as Sam moves towards her. "This is addressed to you." He holds out the envelope to her. Written across it in perfectly crafted cursive was her name. Hayla snatches the envelop from him and stares at it for a moment. Sam and Dean look upon her waiting.

"What does it say?" Dean encourages her. She takes a deep breath and looks up to give him a half smile before slowly tearing it open. She pulls out three sheets of paper all with the same beautiful handwriting as the envelop.

"To my dearest daughter," she starts reading the letter. "It's your first birthday. I wasn't even one before I was on my own and I realized I never got to know my mother or my father. I never knew if they had lost me, or I was taken from them, if they passed away, or if they had even loved me at all. Now I fear that you might face the same challenge. So I decided to write you this letter to tell you how much I love you, because I do. I love you so much. This past year with you has been the best year of my life. I only wish your father was around to see how much his baby girl is just like him. I wish he was around to love you as much as I do. I wish he was around to save you from this impending mess I'm in like the kind, brave and loyal man that I know he is. The kind of person I know you will grow up to be as well. And on your birthday candle I wished the one thing I know we can never have. I wished he was around so that you could be raised by your parents, in a childhood home, to have the normal life you deserve. To have a normal life is the one wish that is forever out of reach, because as you will learn, you are not normal. You are a Winchester, and with that comes sacrifice that I know you are not ready for. One day when you are older you will understand all about the dangers I have faced just to keep you alive.

Certain events have made me realize if I am to keep you safe we can no longer be together. There are people in this world who wish to use you against me. To use you to get to your father. At times the world may seem like such a dark place, but believe me, there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. I choose to look at this time apart from you not as a goodbye but as the first steps of a journey. I hope to have you in my arms again soon but if something prevent that from happening I want you to know that you are loved. So I make you this promise, no matter what happens in the days after this letter is written, you will be safe, you will be loved, and you will be fought for everyday that goes by, and in return I need you to promise me something. Remember this and never forget it, no matter what happens in this life hold on to love. Wherever you can get it. Because no matter where you or who you are with, as long as you have love, you have family, and you are home. I love you baby girl, hold on to that forever. Love, your Mom." Hayla folded the letter back up and brushed away the tears from her eyes. Dean walked beside his sniffling daughter and wrapped an arm around her.

"When I was in the foster system I could never understand why my mom had given me up. I just thought I was a little girl who didn't matter. Now I grow up to find that is was the complete opposite. My mom didn't give me up I was forced from her. And it wasn't because she was a hunter or because she met you its because of me," she sobs. "They wanted wanted to use me against her and against you. Everyone one I come and contact with is in danger because of me. It's all because of me and its all because I was born into this world a Winchester." She pushes herself out of Deans grasp and rushes out of the room. Dean doesn't try to stop her. He looks after her with a sigh and hangs his head in his own disappointment.

Sam sets a heavy hand on his brother's shoulder and give it a squeeze. "She'll be okay," he assures him.

"Really Sam?" He snaps. "Because I know you get this on a mental level but she is my daughter. She is cursed, not by magic, by family because the same blood that pumps through our veins pumps through hers and I can't do a damn thing to fix it or make her feel better! I have no idea how to comfort my own daughter! It is the first thing a parent learns how to do and I don't know how to do it." Dean runs a hand across his face feeling tears well up in his eyes. He walks further into the lair and looks at the back wall facing away from Sam. "We should take some of this stuff. We're low on supplies," he changes the subject.

"Alright," Sam breaths out quietly. "I'll make room in the car." He hears Sam silently leave behind him. Once he's gone Dean shift his gaze to the small tin box that held Hayla's letter. He walks over and sifts through it. It's a bunch of old pictures. There is one of Bobby's lots way back when. A picture of him with jane from that summer sitting on the hood of Bobby's car. Bobby isn't the picture taking type except when there's something to remember, and Dean genuinely smiling is something he said he had to get a picture of. Another picture was of Jane standing in front of this house with a sold sign on the front porch and a small child in her arms. Dean ran his thumb across the picture.

"I'm sorry Janey," he whispers to the photo. He drops it back in the box and that's when he sees another envelop with a capital D scrawled across it. He pulls it out and find that it is in fact addressed to him.

"Car's ready," Sam says interrupting him.

"Alright." Dean slips the letter into his jacket. This doesn't go unnoticed by Sam but he leaves it alone. "Let's load up." They both grab as much will fit in the car and load it in Dean making sure not to leave behind the metal box.

"That should about do it. I think we're ready to hit the road." Sam slams the trunk closed and looks to see his brother's attention is directed towards the small blonde sitting along the railing of the porch and leaning against one of the pillars. The sun was starting to set and they were going to have to leave soon cause no way they were driving down a mountain at night. Sam pats him on the shoulder and says, "I'll give you two a minute." Then he steps into the house.

Dean walks up onto the porch. Hayla looks out into the sunset overlooking the mountains with her back to Dean. She feels him standing a couple feet away now silently waiting for her to turn around, but she won't. "What happens now?" he asks and she closes her eyes not wanting to think about it. "Hal," He says with a little more concern in his voice and this makes tears prick at the corners of her eyes. "Where do you think you're going?"

She finally looks at him eyes glossed over now. "I might stay here for a while. Or got back to Bobby's." His eyes drop to the ground as he nods. "Or maybe New york, Chicago, or freakin Albuquerque. I don't know. All I know is that I can't be around this anymore. We are both in danger every second that we are together and there is not a damn thing we can do to stop it. They are going to find a way to-"

"Hold up." he holds up a hand to make her stop. "Just stop taking." She is shocked at his blunt statement. "Come here." He waves her over. She sighs and hops down from the railing following him around to the trunk of the car and he swings the hatch open. He digs through his duffle until he pulls out a small knife and sheath. He hands it to her and watches as she takes it out of the holdster. It was made from pure iron and engraved along the edge in block letters is the name Winchester.

"It was my first knife," he explains. "My dad gave it to me, and now I'm giving it to you." Dean silently stares at his daughter as she looks over the knife. "I figure, since ghosts seem to take a special liking to you it might come in handy." She still won't look at him and he sighs. "Hayla, despite what you may think, despite the risks and the danger and the letter, despite everything, I would actually like for you to be here." He says silently. "I know you had a pretty messed up childhood. Hell I can relate. This is a chance to change that. To be with your family. However dysfunctional it may be." Hayla gives small chuckle. "I don't know about you, but I would jump at that chance no matter what the risks were."

She studies the knife. "You, me and Sammy? Traveling the country, killing monsters, saving the world?" She sighs and finally looks at him. "Sounds like a bad tv show." It's Deans turn to chuckle.

"You know, when you found me I honestly didn't know how to feel about it. I didn't know how I should feel about my long lost daughter showing up on my door step. Or about being a dad, cause I didn't really had a good one." Hayla looks silently at the ground. "But," she looks back into his green eyes to see nothing but sincerity, "if you'll be patient with me, and give me a second chance, I'd really like to give this whole being a dad thing another try. I may not know what I'm doing but I could write a whole book on what not to do and I figure that's as good a place as any to start. Truth is I want you here Hal." He tucks a small strand of hair behind her ear gently.

Hayla sighs and looks back at the knife in her hands, contemplating silently. It still wasn't too late to run, be rid of all this. Find a quiet place to try and forget everything she had experienced the past seventeen years of her life, especially that last two weeks, and try to have a normal life. She put the knife back into its sheath and for a second Dean was terrified she was going to give it back and tell him to get lost. That's when she slipped her arms around his waist. It took him a minute to process what was happening. Then he slowly wrapped his arms around her shoulders hugging her back tightly. "Hey," he said pushing her her away to look in her eyes. "I can't promise I'll be father of the year, hell I can't even promise that I'll be good at all this. But I will always protect you. You have my word." Hayla nods and Dean pulls her in for another hug.

Sam comes out of the cabin seeing the two in their embrace. Dean sees him crossing the yard and gives Hayla a small kiss of the top of her head before taking a step away. "Everything good here?" Sam asks. Hayla turns towards her uncle and gives him a smile.

"Yeah," she nods.

Dean closes the trunk and walks around to the driver seat. "Alright no more chick flick moments. Let's hit the road." Hayla and Sam both rolled their eyes and Sam gives her a pat on the shoulder before they both hop in car.

"So," Hayla leans up from the back seat and looks between both of them. "Where to next?"

"Well," Dean says with a mischievous look in his eyes. "We could all use a little break. I hear Vegas is great this time of year." They all smile at each other and Dean starts the car and speeds off.

* * *

Once they get down to the bottom of the mountain the find a cheap motel just outside of town and stop for some well needed rest. Dean of course still stays up watching over his little brother and Hayla. Hayla like Dean is sleeping on her stomach, her hair sprawled across the pillow and from where Dean is sitting he can see the handle of the dagger poking out from beneath her pillow.

He smiles at this as he finishes off his third glass of scotch. He groans as the liquid heats the back of his throat in a pian he's grown numb to. He sets the glass back on the table next to the envelop that has been sitting there heavily for a couple hours now. He pours himself another glass and downs it quickly and thats all he need to build up the courage to finally tear open that piece of paper. The letter is short and as he reads it he can hear Janes voice perfectly inside his head.

Dean,

I have written and rewritten this letter too many times to count and still I would give anything to tell you this face to face. I have tried to get ahold of you for the past 8 months but finally gave up and decided leaving a letter with Bobby might be the only way to tell you.

We have a daughter, her name is Hayla. She is like you in so many ways. She has a mess of blonde curls and your same piercing green eyes. She smiles and claps when AC DC comes on the radio and likes to play with toy cars rather than dolls.

I understand that we decided to go our separate ways after you left and what should a summer fling mean to you anyway. I'm afraid that after receiving this letter you might be angry with me for not telling you sooner. I'm even more afraid that after receiving this letter you'll want nothing to do with her. I planned on not telling you about her at all, but as I held her in my arms that first day at the hospital and everyday since then, those green eyes looking up at me told me that I was wrong. Our daughter deserves to know her father, to be raised by her parents, and to be loved everyday. We both had troubled childhoods but this is a chance to make a better life for this small person we brought into this world together.

It's never too late to be a family.

Love,

Jane and Hayla

**Authors Note: PLEASE READ! Yay! I think this chapter has been my favorite to write so far so I hope you liked it. A lot of fighting, crying, and secrets but I felt these characters needed a very emotional moment to lock in a deeper meaning to this family dynamic. So sorry It's been a while since I've uploaded I start college in less than a month so I've been preparing for that like crazy. I promise I'll be better about uploading. BUT! to make up for it I'll give you guys a SPOILER. Next chapter you guys are finally going to meet my new character Ian (Killian). You will get a little taste of what he's going to be like and I honestly can not wait to start writing for him. I think the Hayla and Ian dynamic is going to be so much fun to write and a bit of a comedic break from the shit storm that comes with season 7. I can't wait! With that being said I want thank you guys so much for reading and following, favoriting, reviewing. I appreciate it so much keep it up. Thank you!**


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